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Sam Bankman-Fried will be back in court next month, this time asking for leniency. The disgraced founder of FTX was convicted of seven counts of fraud and conspiracy last year.<\/p>\n
Bankman-Fried\u2019s team is proposing the former billionaire serve between 63 and 78 months in prison, per a memo filed by attorneys late Tuesday. His convictions carry a maximum sentence of 110 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSam is not the \u2018evil genius\u2019 depicted in the media or the greedy villain described at trial. He is a 31-year-old son, brother, friend, humanitarian and philanthropist,\u201d the memo states, adding that Bankman-Fried is \u201cdeeply, deeply sorry\u201d for \u201cthe pain he caused.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Read more:<\/strong> Sam Bankman-Fried will not haunt us forever<\/a><\/p>\n The nearly 400-page document filed just before midnight contains 29 letters of support from people including Bankman-Fried\u2019s family, former employees, doctors and victims of his fraud.\u00a0<\/p>\n The letters discuss Bankman-Fried<\/a>\u2019s character, including anecdotes from his life before FTX<\/a> and philanthropic efforts he advanced as head of the exchange.\u00a0<\/p>\n His mother, Barbara Fried, writes about a time in college when Bankman-Fried comforted a grieving friend. Kat Woods, a former FTX customer, told the court that while she has \u201cbeen harmed immensely\u201d by Bankman-Fried\u2019s actions, the disgraced founder \u201cclearly isn\u2019t evil.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Several writers mention his vegan diet and restrained lifestyle.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEven as a billionaire, he drove the most basic car that was available,\u201d Dr. George Lerner, Bankman-Fried\u2019s psychiatrist wrote. \u201cHe wore ragged t-shirts and shorts. He cooked most of his own meals, usually frying Trader Joe\u2019s vegan meat with sparse vegetables, making enough for any housemates or drop-ins who were around.\u201d<\/p>\n Bankman-Fried has opted to shake up his legal team<\/a> since his conviction last November. He retained Marc Mukasey and Torrey Young last month, a move judge Lewis Kaplan approved last week after making sure Bankman-Fried was aware of his right to \u201cconflict free representation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Mukasey and Young also represent Alex Mashinsky<\/a>, the former CEO of now-shuttered Celsius <\/a>who is scheduled to stand criminal trial in New York in January 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mark Cohen, Christian Everdell and their colleagues, who represented Bankman-Fried through his trial, withdrew from the case earlier this month.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bankman-Fried\u2019s sentencing hearing is scheduled for March 28 in New York.\u00a0<\/p>\n Former FTX director of engineering Nishad Singh, who cooperated with prosecutors as a witness<\/a> against Bankman-Fried, is slated to be sentenced in November. Former FTX co-CEO Ryan Salame, who pleaded guilty and did not cooperate as a witness<\/a>, was originally scheduled to be sentenced ahead of Bankman-Fried but his hearing was moved last week to May 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n Other cooperating witnesses including former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison<\/a> and former FTX Chief Technology Officer Gary Wang have not yet had sentencing hearings scheduled.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bankman-Fried is currently in the Metropolitan Detention Center, where he has been since his bail was revoked in August 2023.<\/p>\n
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