Is FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried Ditching Prison? Lawyers Reveal Daring Next Steps

A recent court filing revealed plans that the former CEO of the defunct crypto exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), had drafted to ensure he avoids jail term. SBF, whose sentencing comes up on March 28, faces the possibility of spending up to 100 years locked behind bars. 

How Bankman-Fried Intended To Avoid Prison

As part of his plans to avoid a jail term, Sam Bankman-Fried included going on Tucker Carlson and coming out as a Republican. This formed part of what Sam Bankman-Fried had termed “probably bad ideas” in the Google doc, which contained a long list of things he planned to do to save face. 

The FTX founder was publicly known to have made significant political donations to the Democratic party while secretly funneling funds to the GOP. However, from his plan, SBF seemed to have believed that publicly coming out as a Republican would have helped his case more. He also planned to come out against the “woke agenda,” as Republicans are known to be conservatives. 

Meanwhile, there were earlier reports that Bankman-Fried would blame all his lawyers as part of his defense. This was indeed true, as the convicted crypto founder contemplated this, highlighting in the Google doc how he would paint them as incompetent. SBF also planned to make everyone believe that this “cartel of lawyers” was why they failed in running FTX. 

Bankman-Fried also thought putting out a “strong anti-Binance message” could help his case. The FTX founder may have indeed carried out this plan, as a Bitcoinist report revealed how he might have been responsible for the negative news that gripped the largest crypto exchange last year. 

Prosecutors Ask For 40-50 Years For Sam Bankman-Fried

As revealed in their sentencing submission, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has asked the court to sentence SBF to 40 to 50 years in prison, labeling it “necessary.” They noted that such punishment would reflect the seriousness of Bankman-Fried’s crimes and protect the public from further crimes of the defendant.  

The defendant’s lawyers had earlier proposed a sentencing limit of 5 years to 6 and a half years, arguing that their client would be more useful in the outside world than in prison. However, the prosecution rebutted this submission and argued that such a sentence would be “woefully inadequate to satisfy the purposes of sentencing.”

Interestingly, the DOJ acknowledged that a life sentence for Sam Bankman-Fried would be “greater than necessary” to satisfy the sentencing guidelines, especially considering the defendant’s age. As such, they emphasized that they weren’t asking the court to impose a life sentence.