Prosecutors said Sam Bankman-Fried should get as much as 50 years behind bars for his role in the collapse of his FTX cryptocurrency exchange in "what is likely the largest fraud of the last decade."
In a court filing Friday, the government asked a judge to impose far less than the 100 years recommended in sentencing guidelines for the charges Bankman-Fried was convicted of, but much more than the 6 1/2-year maximum his lawyers suggested for the onetime crypto wunderkind.
"In every part of his business, and with respect to each crime committed, the defendant demonstrated a brazen disrespect for the rule of law," prosecutors said in the filing. "He understood the rules, but decided they did not apply to him."
U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan in New York is scheduled to sentence the 32-year-old on March 28.
With such a wide disparity in the recommendations, the judge's decision could be a bellwether for other cryptocurrency executives who defrauded investors or mismanaged client funds.
