SBF attorneys call prosecutors’ sentencing recommendation ‘medieval’

Attorneys for Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of FTX who was convicted of seven counts of fraud and conspiracy last year, are making an eleventh-hour plea to the court ahead of sentencing next week. 

The government’s proposed 40-50 year sentence is a “medieval view of punishment” suitable only for a “super villain,” Bankman-Fried’s team said. 

The prosecution, which earlier this month submitted their recommendations to the court for how long Bankman-Fried should be behind bars, has displayed “marked hostility,” Marc Mukasey, a new member of Bankman-Fried’s defense team, told the court in a letter Tuesday. 

“The memorandum distorts reality to support its precious ‘loss’ narrative and casts Sam as a depraved super-villain; it attributes to him dark and megalomaniacal motives that fly in the face of the record,” Mukasey said. 

In their 116-page sentencing memorandum, the prosecution urged presiding judge Lewis Kaplan to consider the “remarkably serious nature of the harm to thousands of victims.” Mukasey counters this claim, arguing that everyone will be made whole. 

Read more: US prosecutors seek decades in prison for Sam Bankman-Fried

“There were never losses. The money has always been available. Assets remain,” Mukasey said in Tuesday’s letter. 

“Each victim quoted in the government’s opposition will receive 100 cents on the dollar — plus interest,” Mukasey added, citing FTX’s bankruptcy plan.  

The defense has suggested Bankman-Fried serve 6 ½ years for his crimes, highlighting the 32-year-old’s vegan diet and unpretentious lifestyle. 

“Even as a billionaire, he drove the most basic car that was available,” Dr. George Lerner, Bankman-Fried’s psychiatrist, wrote in a letter to the court last month. “He wore ragged t-shirts and shorts. He cooked most of his own meals.”

Bankman-Fried, who faces a maximum sentence of 110 years, is scheduled to be sentenced in Manhattan on March 28.

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