Prosecutors: Sam Bankman-Fried should get 40 to 50 years in prison

In their sentencing memo, Bankman-Fried’s attorneys asked Judge Lewis A. Kaplan to issue a five- to six-year prison term. He faces as much as 100 years under federal sentencing guidelines, which would be “grotesque,” attorney Marc Mukasey wrote, for a “brilliant, complex and humane person” with a history of charitable work and altruistic ideals. Mukasey also cited Bankman-Fried’s autism as a reason for leniency.

Mukasey declined to respond to questions Friday from The Washington Post, saying he would be responding to the government’s memo on Monday.

Prosecutors rebuffed Bankman-Fried’s claims of good intentions, focusing instead on victims who lost their life savings. During the trial, they framed their case as a straightforward fraud dressed up as a breakthrough financial innovation, arguing that Bankman-Fried misappropriated customer funds to spend lavishly on luxury real estate, investments, and “dark money” political donations.

“With all the advantages conferred by a comfortable upbringing, an MIT education, a prestigious start to his career in finance, and a worthy idea for a start-up business, Bankman-Fried could have pursued the rewarding, productive, and altruistic life he has sketched out in his sentencing submission,” prosecutors wrote. “But instead, his life in recent years has been one of unmatched greed and hubris; of ambition and rationalization; and courting risk and gambling repeatedly with other people’s money.”

Plus, they said, Bankman-Fried is unrepentant. “Even following FTX’s bankruptcy and his subsequent arrest, Bankman-Fried shirked responsibility, deflected blame to market events and other individuals, attempted to tamper with witnesses, and lied repeatedly under oath.”