Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced former CEO of collapsed crypto exchange FTX, is arguing for a shorter prison sentence as he faces up to 110 years in prison for defrauding FTX customers and investors out of billions of dollars.
In a sentencing memo filed Tuesday, Bankman-Fried’s lawyers requested he be sentenced to between 63 to 78 months — or between five and seven years — in prison. His lawyers cited medical conditions including neurodiversity and autism, making him “uniquely vulnerable in a prison population,” as well as Bankman-Fried’s desire to make“the world a better place” and his remorse over the collapse of the crypto exchange.
“When the [f]actors are considered, including Sam’s charitable works and demonstrated commitment to others, a sentence that returns Sam promptly to a productive role in society would be sufficient, but not greater than necessary, to comply with the purposes of sentencing,” his lawyers argued.
Bankman-Fried was convicted in November on seven counts — two for wire fraud, two for wire fraud conspiracy, and three other conspiracy charges — after he was unable to convince a jury he did not nor mean to defraud FTX customers when the exchange fell into bankruptcy in November 2022. His sentencing is scheduled for March 28.
Bankman-Fried’s parents also submitted letters to the judge pleading for a lighter sentence for their son, citing his social awkwardness.
“I genuinely fear for Sam’s life in the typical prison environment,” Barbara Fried wrote, according to Business Insider. “Sam’s outward presentation, his inability to read or respond appropriately to many social cues, and his touching but naive belief in the power of facts and reason to resolve disputes, put him in extreme danger.”
His father Joseph Bankman similarly wrote that Bankman-Fried’s response to social cues could be mistaken by fellow inmates as “odd, inappropriate, and disrespectful” — and put him in danger.
Lawyers for the former crypto CEO wrote that people closest to him “understand that his conduct was ‘never motivated by greed or status,’” and that they “also know how deeply, deeply sorry he is for the pain he caused over the last two years.”