Former billionaire and Founder of now-bankrupt crypto firm FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, has been jailed for 25 years for his role in the massive crypto fraud. A Jury found Bankman-Fried(32) guilty on November 2, 2023 on seven fraud and conspiracy counts stemming from FTX’s November 2022 collapse, according to prosecutors one of the biggest financial frauds in US history. Bankman-Fried stole $8 billion from customers of the now-bankrupt FTX Crypto currency exchange he founded,  the last step in the former billionaire wunderkind’s dramatic downfall. U.S. Judge Lewis Kaplan handed down the sentence at a Manhattan Court hearing after rejecting Bankman-Fried’s claim that FTX customers did not actually lose money and finding that he lied during his trial testimony.

He rubbed shoulders with U.S. ex-president Bill Clinton, former prime minister Tony Blair who both carefully listened to his words of wisdom. Pop singer Katy Perry mentioned FTX in a karaoke song. Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen even promoted FTX.

A pensive Bankman-Fried wearing a beige short-sleeve jail T-shirt said in court “collapse of FTX haunts me every day” and offered an apology  to his former FTX colleagues  but did not admit criminal wrongdoing. He has vowed to appeal his conviction and sentence. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate Bankman-Fried rode a boom in the values of bitcoin and other digital assets to a net worth of $26billion, according to Forbes Magazine before he turned 30. He was one of the biggest contributors to Democratic candidates and  causes before the 2022 U.S. midterm election.