The founder and former CEO of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange and Alameda Research trading company Sam Benkman-Fried, who was recently sentenced to 25 years in prison for fraud, has filed an appeal to appeal the sentence. Reuters writes about this.
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What is known
The appeal could take years to resolve. The former billionaire's lawyers will have to convince the District Court and possibly the U.S. Supreme Court that Judge Lewis Kaplan made significant errors that deprived Benkman-Fried of his legal rights and made the trial unfair.
Background
A US district court sentenced the founder of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, to 25 years in prison for misappropriating $8 billion of client funds.
FTX filed for bankruptcy, and Sam Bankman-Fried left his post as CEO of the crypto exchange on November 11 2022, when his company failed to secure a rescue after a significant one-week liquidity crunch. FTX on the same day transferred billions of dollars of client funds to Alameda Research, also owned by the founder of the exchange.
On December 13, Sam Benkman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas. American regulators accused him of implementing a decades-long scheme to defraud investors. The Securities and Exchange Commission reported that Benkman-Fried defrauded investors of more than $1.8 billion. The founder of FTX was extradited to the United States.
The Ministry of Finance wrote that the FTX cryptocurrency exchange refused to restart the platform and will liquidation process, thanks to which it plans to pay clients money. Company lawyer Andy Dietderich stated this in court.