Things have taken an interesting turn this week on the ongoing case between the fallen crypto king, Bankman-Fried, and the US government.
According to reports the accused is allegedly seeking forgiveness for what went down at FTX, as well as a lighter prison sentence for his crimes that cost investors nearly $10 billion.
Launched in 2019, FTX quickly gained popularity among centralized exchanges (especially in Asia) and was soon ranked among 5 of the biggest CEXs in the world.
FTX claimed to have over 10 million users and to process over $10 billion in trader funds before November 2022.
However, behind the scenes, FTX turned out to be a massive Ponzi scheme that used new deposits to pay out old withdrawals—all while SBF and his associates used the capital inflows to purchase everything from cars to luxury houses.
The scam bubble burst in November 2022; however, when FTX (and Alameda Research, its sister company) suddenly froze up and announced that they were filing for bankruptcy.
At the end of the bankruptcy rabbit hole, audits revealed that FTX had debts of over $11 billion, and assets worth only $2 billion.
Moreover, the exchange owed more than $3 billion to other entities including crypto exchanges, market makers, and liquidity providers.
Fast forward by more than a year from then, and we have SBF facing more than a century in prison, on as many as seven criminal charges.
On Tuesday 27 February this week, SBF's lawyers filed a legal memo in U.S. District Court in Manhattan according to The New York Times.
In the memo, the lawyers pushed for a relatively shorter prison sentence of between 5.25 to 6.5 years, instead of the recommended 100-year sentence.
As per the memo, SBF has apologized and expressed remorse, saying that he is "deeply sorry" for "the pain he has caused over the last two years".
Moreover, the memo also showed that his "sole focus" after the collapse of FTX was "making the customers whole"—or to compensate them.
Since Bankman-Fried's conviction last year, Bankman-Fried's supporters have turned to family and friends, including law professors, for help.
They were able to include 29 letters, written by his character, including one that was written by a former assistant to Bankman-Fried at FTX, according to the sentencing memo.
Overall, while countless people have suffered as a consequence of Bankman-Fried's actions, the once "crypto king" seems to be trying to get back on track.
Will the court put his family and supporters' plea into consideration, or will we see Bankman-Fried spend the next century behind bars?
Time will tell!!
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