Sam Bankman-Fried deserves to spend just a few years in prison, lawyers for the convicted FTX founder have argued in a last-ditch appeal for clemency, portraying him as a “selfless” and “altruistic” young man who “committed his life to philanthropy”.
The former crypto tycoon, who was found guilty on seven charges of fraud and money laundering last year, is a “first-time, non-violent offender . . . in a matter where victims are poised to recover — were always poised to recover — a hundred cents on the dollar”, they said in a court filing on Tuesday.
Bankman-Fried’s lawyers said an appropriate sentence would range from five and a half to six and a half years. They called a 100-year sentence recommended by probation officers “grotesque” and “barbaric” and said that as a person with autism spectrum disorder, their client was “uniquely vulnerable in a prison population”.