Sam Bankman-Fried’s new legal team filed his sentencing memo, alongside 29 different character references and other supporting documents, arguing he shouldn’t face a lengthy prison term after his conviction last November on two fraud and five conspiracy charges.
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The narrative
The Presentence Investigation Report – a recommendation put together by a probation officer – said Sam Bankman-Fried should spend a century in prison, which his attorneys called “grotesque” in a 98-page memo suggesting a more reasonable range of 5 to 6.5 years, which would let Bankman-Fried return “promptly to a productive role in society.”
Why it matters
Bankman-Fried will be sentenced on March 28. Ostensibly, he faces as many as 115 years in prison, though attorneys I spoke to before his trial began estimated that 10-20 years seemed more likely. We now know that a probation officer recommended 100 years, which the defense team also called “barbaric.”
Breaking it down
Sam Bankman-Fried didn’t mean to defraud his customers and feels awful that they were hurt – but he didn’t commit the “kind of heinous conduct” that deserves a life sentence, his attorneys wrote in a sentencing memo.
“[Bankman-Fried’s] personal assets are gone,” the memo said. “Insufficient funds remain even for payment of a fine … Legal proceedings will follow him for the rest of his life. The ability to obtain employment, bank, borrow, travel, and adopt, among other things, may be implicated. More painful for Sam is that the companies he built and loved – and which had so much lawful success and even more potential – are gone. And Sam is utterly heartbroken that he may have caused collateral damage to the philanthropic community that he so loved.”
A footnote said the probation officer who put the presentence report together “almost entirely dismissed” the defense’s objections, but adopted the Department of Justice’s positions.
Tuesday’s filings were the first by Bankman-Fried’s new legal team, after his trial attorneys – led by Mark Cohen and Christian Everdell – stepped down. In many respects, the sentencing document is exactly what’s to be expected: A memo arguing that…
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