Sam Bankman-Fried to meet his fate this week as judge decides how long to jail ... trends now

Shamed FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, 32, is set to appear in court later this week to face justice for stealing billions from crypto investors with prosecutors wanting him to spend decades behind bars and his defense demanding he be freed by age 40. 

Once worth over $26 billion, Bankman-Fried faces a maximum of 110 years in prison for defrauding FTX customers and investors. 

He conspired with senior officers at his company to steal roughly $8 billion in customer deposits that were supposed to be safe on the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, which froze withdrawals and went bankrupt in November 2022. 

Federal prosecutors with the Southern District of New York argued in a March court filing that Bankman-Fried ought to spend 40 to 50 years in prison to deter potential future crimes and 'protect the public.' 

'Bankman-Fried's crimes were serious and long-running, causing billions of dollars in losses and significant harm to tens of thousands of victims financially and emotionally,' according to the government's sentencing memorandum. 

His defense is asking the court to impose a sentence of no greater than six-and-a-half years because, among other things, he's a first-time, nonviolent offender who is neurodivergent. 

However, the real cornerstone of the defense's argument for a lenient sentence is that a lawyer for the FTX debtors said in January that victims 'will eventually be paid in full.' 

While that hasn't been confirmed, the crypto market's rebound in 2024 makes it more likely since the FTX estate has been selling crypto to raise cash, according to bankruptcy documents.

But prosecutors wanted to see him locked up for decades with little chance of leaving prison before Bankman-Fried becomes an old man. 

The government argued that an effective life sentence, similar to the ones handed down to Bernie Madoff and Allen Stanford, would be 'greater than necessary' for Bankman-Fried partly due to how much younger he is than them.

A separate presentence investigation report by the federal probation office recommended 100 years, a prospect Bankman-Fried's new attorneys called 'grotesque' and 'barbaric.'

Over 100 victim impact statements have poured in leading up to his sentencing. Everyone from single parents to young risk-takers trying to boost their wealth to experienced crypto investors wrote in.

Each person tells a different story. Some say they lost their life savings in the FTX collapse. Others describe the day the exchange went bust as a 'nightmare.' 

Many expressed anger at Bankman-Fried specifically and urged the court to take seriously what happened to them.

'All my hard-earned life savings were invested in bitcoin on the FTX platform, hoping to secure a better future for my family and myself. However, the actions of SBF and FTX have shattered those hopes,' one victim wrote. 'The scam has caused immense emotional distress, leading to constant thoughts of suicide.'

While another added: 'The same week the FTX collapsed my mother was diagnosed with cancer, it was a very hard time for me and my family… I had to travel constantly to be with her and support her. Raising a kid, taking care of my sick mother while struggling financially due to being scammed is something I don’t wish on anyone.'

Customers wrote about losses well into the hundreds of thousands, some even saying they lost millions when taking into account how much cryptocurrencies have appreciated in recent months. 

Bitcoin, for example, pushed past $72,000 in mid-March.

Ultimately, Judge Lewis Kaplan will decide whether he puts more emphasis on the amount that could be repaid to victims or the fact that customers have been deprived of their money because of the fraud perpetrated by Bankman-Fried.