Sam Bankman-Fried, the indicted founder of now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, may face a “very long sentence” if convicted at his fraud trial starting next week, the judge overseeing the case said on Thursday.
United States District Judge Lewis Kaplan’s comments came just before he denied the 31-year-old former billionaire’s request to be released from jail temporarily during the trial to better help his lawyers mount his defense case. Kaplan said Bankman-Fried was a flight risk.
“Your client in the event of conviction could be looking at a very long sentence,” Kaplan said in a hearing in Manhattan federal court. “If things begin to look bleak … maybe the time would come when he would seek to flee.”
Mark Cohen, Bankman-Fried’s lawyer, said there was “nothing in the record” to suggest that his client would try to flee. He said Bankman-Fried had voluntarily consented to extradition from the Bahamas – where FTX was based – to the US after his December 2022 arrest.
Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to seven counts of fraud and conspiracy stemming from FTX’s collapse in November 2022. He faces a statutory maximum of 110 years in prison, though any sentence would be determined by Kaplan based on a range of factors and he would likely get far less.
His lawyers asked Kaplan for <a href="https://news.ad-astra.icu/judge-warns-bankman-fried-of-potential-lengthy-imprisonment-if-found-guilty.html” title=”Judge warns Bankman-Fried of potential 'lengthy imprisonment' if found guilty”>temporary release earlier this week, arguing they could not speak with him after each trial day to prepare for the next day’s witnesses and testimony, which they could not do if he were taken back to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn at the end of each trial day.
Link from www.aljazeera.com