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Bankman-Fried, wearing a beige short-sleeve jail T-shirt, acknowledged during 20 minutes of remarks to the judge during the hearing that FTX customers had suffered and he offered an apology to his former FTX colleagues – but did not admit criminal wrongdoing.Bankman-Fried stood with his hands clasped before him as Kaplan read the sentence. He spoke with his defense lawyer Marc Mukasey briefly before he was led out of the courtroom by members of the US Marshals Service after the hearing.
Federal prosecutors had sought a prison sentence of 40 to 50 years. Mukasey had argued that a sentence of less than 5-1/4 years would be appropriate.Addressing the judge, Bankman-Fried said, “Customers have been suffering… I didn’t at all mean to minimize that. I also think that’s something that was missing from what I’ve said over the course of this process, and I’m sorry for that.”
“Sam was not a ruthless financial serial killer who set out every morning to hurt people,” Mukasey said, describing his client as an “awkward math nerd” who worked hard to get customers their money back after FTX’s collapse.