Former FTX Chief Executive Sam Bankman-Fried arrives to the Manhattan federal court in New York
Reuters

KEY POINTS

  • Judge Kaplan said SBF showed no remorse and ordered the disgraced crypto mogul to pay $11 billion
  • Many in the crypto community believe the FTX founder should have received a heavier sentence
  • Others have raised the topic on his political campaign donations – one of additional charges the DOJ dropped

Sam Bankman-Fried, disgraced founder of collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison after his conviction on seven fraud-related charges, but there is outrage on X (formerly Twitter), as some crypto users said the sentence was too "short." Others are demanding that all the donations he made to political campaigns be returned.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan said Bankman-Fried, also widely known as SBF, didn't show real remorse for committing fraud. He sentenced the fallen crypto mogul to 25 years, plus three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $11 billion – an amount Kaplan said was reflective of the funds he stole from his victims.

"Today's sentence...is an important message to others who might be tempted to engage in financial crimes that justice will be swift, and the consequences will be severe," said U.S. federal prosecutor Damian Williams.

While Kaplan and Williams deemed the sentence was enough to serve justice to the many victims of SBF's fraudulent vision of a crypto empire, the sentence was met with immense backlash on X.

Founder of data engineering infrastructure DataExpert.io Zach Wilson said SBF should be "required to work at 50th percentile wages until he pays back the $8 billion" he stole from people and entities.

Bitcoin Magazine had a more unique take on the court's decision. "Ross Ulbricht created a website and is still serving 2 life sentences in prison. Injustice at its finest," the magazine wrote. Ulbricht was convicted of operating the infamous Silk Road, the dark net market website that the FBI said was "a digital bazaar for illegal goods and services."

Head of content at Hit Network Nick Dimondi said Bankman-Fried destroyed legitimate projects, crushed the dreams of other crypto developers, and "enabled dozens of bad actors." He added that the former crypto darling "single-handedly ruined the reputation of crypto for millions of people." Instead of being served, justice was "humiliated" by SBF's sentence, Dimondi said.

Pro-XRP lawyer and Massachusetts senate candidate John Deaton said Bankman-Fried "should've gotten twice" than the 25-year sentence. "If you commit fraud and steal hard-working people's life savings, you deserve a harsher prison sentence," he said.

While there were several X users who seemed to empathize with SBF, most seemed disappointed by the court's decision.

Others raised the issue regarding his millions in donations to politicians, largely to Democratic candidates ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, as per Time. One user said "every penny" of the donations he made should be returned by the candidates. Another user said the candidates shouldn't be made to pay but instead, SBF should be put to work behind bars since he donated the money.

The new FTX leadership has asked politicians to return donations they received from Bankman-Fried, threatening legal action if necessary. FTX debtors, along with the new FTX administration, sent "confidential letters" to recipients of donations made by SBF and other former FTX executives.

It is unclear which politicians have returned the funds, and the exact amount of money he gifted will probably not be known anytime soon as the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced earlier this year that it no longer plans to pursue additional charges against SBF, which include illicit political campaign contributions.

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