FTX scammer Sam Bankman-Fried looks for less than 7 years in jail

Lawyers for Sam Bankman-Fried are asking a judge for a reasonably brief sentence like “junk bond king” Michael Milken rather of the 100 years that a presentence examination report requires.

In a brand-new court filing, lawyers for Bankman-Fried requested a sentence of in between 63 and 78 months in jail for supervising the big monetary scams at his cryptocurrency exchange FTX and associated hedge fund Alameda Research.

That filing, to name a few things, mentions his “neurodiversity,” altruism and “kindness”– and highly conflicts claims he cost his business’ clients billions of dollars with scams.

“Sam Bankman-Fried has been described as a ‘sociopath,’ ‘a man with no morals, remorse or empathy,’ who is an ‘an ice-cold manipulator, bully and shameless liar,'” his legal representatives informed Manhattan federal court Judge Lewis Kaplan in the filing.

“But they don’t know the true Sam Bankman-Fried,” the lawyers argued in rebutting the 100- year jail term advised by a presentence examination report by federal probation authorities.

The legal representatives composed that Bankman-Fried, 31, is “full of regret for the enormous damage that he has caused his (former) friends, family, partners, colleagues, and the causes he cared so deeply about.”

The filing prices estimate a letter from his mom, Barbara Fried, who composed that her child “has been wracked with remorse for not having prevented the implosion of FTX and the damage that followed.”

“It is, he has told me, the first thing he thinks about when he wakes up and the last thing he thinks about when he goes to sleep, and it occupies many moments in between,” composed Fried, who like her spouse, Joseph Bankman, is a Stanford law teacher.

Bankman-Fried has actually remained in prison given that his bail was withdrawed in August, 8 months after he was prosecuted on several scams charges and other counts associated with the remarkable collapse of FTX in late 2022.

He was founded guilty at trial in November and is because of be sentenced on March 28.

The Manhattan U.S. lawyer’s workplace, which prosecuted Bankman-Fried, has yet to submit its sentencing suggestion however is anticipated to require a much stiffer sentence than that required by defense attorney in their brand-new filing.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams in November stated, “Bankman-Fried perpetrated one of the biggest financial frauds in American history,” and belittled the concept that the FTX creator’s conduct was encouraged by selflessness.

“This case has always been about lying, cheating, and stealing, and we have no patience for it,” Williams stated at the time.

In their brand-new, almost 100- page file, defense lawyer marshal a range of arguments developed to get Kaplan to significantly leave downward from federal sentencing standards, which advise that he provide Bankman-Fried 100 years or more in jail.

“That recommendation is grotesque,” the defense group led by lawyer Marc Mukasey composed in the filing.

“This Court must turn down the [Presentence Investigation Report’s] barbaric proposition.”

The federal standards in the event recommend an oppressive sentence for Bankman-Fried in big part as the outcome of the $10 billion loss by FTX and Alameda Research clients in the event, as the Presentence Investigation Report concluded.

Defense legal representatives in their sentencing submission stated that the loss computation is unsupported by proof, arguing that “the most reasonable estimate of loss is zero.”

The filing keeps in mind that last month, debtors’ lawyers in the insolvency case of FTX and Alameda stated that “customers and creditors who can prove their losses are expected to get back all of their money.”

“The harm to customers, lenders, and investors is zero,” Bankman-Fried’s legal representatives composed.

In addition to assaulting at length the reasoning of the sentencing standards’ suggestion, SBF’s legal representatives invested a big piece of the filing detailing his individual history, mental makeup and “charitable works.”

It states he developed Alameda and after that FTX as engines to generate income that might then be provided to numerous selfless ventures, in line with Bankman-Fried’s accept of the approach referred to as “effective altruism.”

The filing explains him as a “shy” kid who “often struggled socially,” who in high school “realized he was anhedonic, or unable to experience joy or pleasure.”

“As Sam describes it, he experiences negative emotions in ways that are not very different from many other people — neither much more extreme, nor much less negative. But he does not feel pleasure, or happiness, or joy, even when something very good happens to him,” the filing states.

“In college, he was officially diagnosed as suffering from anhedonic depression and he has been on antidepressant medication ever since.”

The legal representatives composed that Bankman-Fried has a “neurodiversity” that “greatly affects how he perceives and is perceived.”

The filing does not clearly call Bankman-Fried autistic or state he is on the autism spectrum, however a number of times discusses his neurodiversity in connection with recommendations to those terms.

“Neurodiversity is a medical principle that acknowledges the variation in human neurology. It acknowledges that neurological distinctions, such as those related to Asperger’s, ASD, and [Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder] belong to the spectrum of variety of the human brain that exists,” the filing states.

“Sam’s condition manifests in a wide variety of ways. No two individuals on the spectrum are exactly alike. It is not a disease or a condition that needs to be cured,” the legal representatives composed. “Instead, it is a fundamental aspect of an individual’s identity—an aspect to be considered at sentencing.”

The filing states that due to the fact that of his condition, “Sam is uniquely vulnerable in a prison population.”

“Individuals with ASD are often at considerably greater risk of physical harm and extortion in prison than other inmates,” the legal representatives composed.

The lawyers argued that Bankman-Fried is “not at risk of committing further crimes,” and had actually currently been roughly penalized by the bad conditions in the Brooklyn, New York, federal prison where he has actually been secured given that last summer season.

The filing advised the judge to sentence Bankman-Fried along the lines of the sentence troubled so-called scrap bond king Michael Milken, who got a 10- year term for the scams he dedicated at the financial investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert in the 1980 s, however just wound up serving 2 years behind bars.

“Milken was released from custody at an age when he was young enough to still make a positive impact,” the legal representatives argued. “And he became a tremendous force for good in the world.”

“Milken’s two-year sentence gave him a second chance. He has changed the lives of countless others for the better with that chance,” the filing stated.

“Given the same chance, Sam would dedicate his post-prison life to charitable works, finding the best ways to help others, and put them into practice, consistent with his commitment to effective altruism.”

Don’t miss out on these stories from CNBC PRO: