Sam Bankman-Fried

Samuel Benjamin Bankman-Fried
Born:	March 6, 1992 Stanford, California
Charges:	Wire fraud, Conspiracy to commit wire fraud, Securities fraud conspiracy, Commodities fraud conspiracy, Money laundering conspiracy
Sentence:	25 years
Facility:	FCI Terminal Island
Status:	Incarcerated (appeal pending)

Samuel Benjamin Bankman-Fried (born March 6, 1992), commonly known by his initials SBF, is an American former businessman and convicted fraudster who was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for orchestrating one of the largest financial frauds in American history through his cryptocurrency exchange FTX and its affiliated trading firm Alameda Research. Bankman-Fried, who was once celebrated as a cryptocurrency wunderkind worth an estimated $26 billion and promoted "effective altruism" as his guiding philosophy, was convicted in November 2023 on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy after a trial that exposed how he systematically stole billions of dollars from FTX customers to fund personal investments, luxury real estate, and millions of dollars in political contributions. The sentencing judge, who characterized Bankman-Fried as showing no remorse, also ordered him to pay $11 billion in forfeiture and serve three years of supervised release. His appeal was heard by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in November 2025, with a ruling pending.

Our Federal Sentence Calculator estimates Bankman-Fried will serve about 223.5 months in federal prison and transfer to the halfway house around November 11, 2042. He will then serve 12 months in the halfway house or on home confinement and be released from Bureau of Prisons custody in November 2043. His projected release date with good conduct credit is October 25, 2044.

Summary

Sam Bankman-Fried's spectacular rise and catastrophic fall became the defining financial scandal of the cryptocurrency era. In just a few years, he built FTX from a startup into one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, with a valuation exceeding $30 billion. He cultivated an image as an earnest, disheveled genius who slept on beanbag chairs, played video games during meetings, and pledged to give away most of his wealth through "effective altruism"—a philosophy emphasizing using evidence-based methods to maximize philanthropic impact. Politicians, celebrities, and institutional investors embraced him as the acceptable face of cryptocurrency.

The reality was starkly different. Federal prosecutors established that from 2019 through FTX's collapse in November 2022, Bankman-Fried systematically stole billions of dollars from customers who had deposited funds on the exchange. The money was funneled to Alameda Research, the trading firm Bankman-Fried controlled, which used it for speculative investments that ultimately lost billions. Bankman-Fried also used stolen customer funds to purchase luxury real estate in the Bahamas, make over $100 million in political contributions to candidates from both parties, and support his lavish lifestyle—all while publicly claiming that customer funds were safely segregated.

When cryptocurrency prices crashed in late 2022 and customers rushed to withdraw funds, FTX could not meet the redemptions because the money was gone. The exchange filed for bankruptcy in November 2022, and Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas the following month. His trial revealed the full scope of a fraud that prosecutors compared to Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme in its scale and brazenness.

Background

Early Life and Education

Samuel Benjamin Bankman-Fried was born on March 6, 1992, in Stanford, California. Both of his parents are professors at Stanford Law School. He attended high school at Crystal Springs Uplands School in the Bay Area and then enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he graduated in 2014 with a degree in physics and a minor in mathematics.

Career in Trading

After college, Bankman-Fried worked at Jane Street Capital, a quantitative trading firm, where he traded exchange-traded funds. He became interested in the philosophy of effective altruism, which advocates using evidence and reason to determine how to benefit others as much as possible. Bankman-Fried would later claim that his pursuit of wealth was motivated by his desire to donate most of it to effective causes.

Founding Alameda Research and FTX

In 2017, Bankman-Fried founded Alameda Research, a quantitative trading firm focused on cryptocurrency markets. In 2019, he founded FTX, a cryptocurrency derivatives exchange, alongside Gary Wang. FTX quickly became one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, known for its innovative products and aggressive marketing.

Bankman-Fried cultivated a distinctive public image: the young, casual genius who valued effectiveness over appearance, slept little, and was driven by the desire to do good. His embrace of effective altruism and his pledge to donate the vast majority of his wealth made him a darling of both the cryptocurrency industry and mainstream media. He testified before Congress, attended conferences with world leaders, and appeared on magazine covers.

Indictment, Prosecution, and Sentencing

FTX Collapse

In early November 2022, news reports revealed that Alameda Research's balance sheet was heavily dependent on FTT, FTX's proprietary cryptocurrency token. This revelation sparked concerns about the financial stability of both companies. When rival exchange Binance announced it would sell its FTT holdings, it triggered a run on FTX as customers rushed to withdraw their funds.

FTX could not meet the withdrawal requests because the customer funds were not there—they had been transferred to Alameda Research. On November 11, 2022, FTX filed for bankruptcy. The collapse wiped out billions of dollars in customer assets and triggered investigations by federal authorities.

Arrest and Charges

On December 12, 2022, Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas at the request of U.S. authorities. He was extradited to the United States and charged with multiple counts of fraud and conspiracy. The charges alleged that he had orchestrated a scheme to steal billions of dollars from FTX customers while lying to investors and lenders about the relationship between FTX and Alameda Research.

Trial and Conviction

Bankman-Fried's trial began in October 2023 in federal court in Manhattan before Judge Lewis Kaplan. The prosecution presented evidence showing that Bankman-Fried had directed the transfer of billions of dollars in customer funds from FTX to Alameda Research, used the money for speculative investments and personal expenditures, and repeatedly lied to investors and the public about the nature of these transactions.

Key prosecution witnesses included several of Bankman-Fried's former close associates who had pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate, including Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research and Bankman-Fried's former girlfriend. Their testimony provided detailed accounts of how the fraud was executed.

Bankman-Fried testified in his own defense, claiming that he had made mistakes but had not intended to commit fraud. On November 2, 2023, the jury convicted him on all seven counts: two counts of wire fraud, two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Sentencing

On March 28, 2024, Judge Kaplan sentenced Bankman-Fried to 25 years in federal prison. The sentence was below the 40-50 years prosecutors had requested but far above the six years Bankman-Fried's lawyers had sought. The judge also ordered Bankman-Fried to pay $11 billion in forfeiture and serve three years of supervised release following his imprisonment.

At sentencing, Judge Kaplan was sharply critical of Bankman-Fried, stating that he had never offered "a word of remorse for commission of terrible crimes." The judge also expressed concern about Bankman-Fried's potential for future wrongdoing, stating that "he will be in a position to do something very bad in the future, and it's not a trivial risk."

Prison Status

Following his sentencing in March 2024, Bankman-Fried was held at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, New York, the federal jail where he had been detained since his bail was revoked in August 2023. In late March 2025, he was transferred to the Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma, where he spent approximately two weeks before being moved to Federal Correctional Institution Victorville in California, a medium-security facility described by federal prison consultants as "notoriously hard."

On April 11, 2025, Bankman-Fried was transferred to FCI Terminal Island, a low-security facility near Los Angeles, approximately 400 miles south of Stanford University where his parents work as law professors. Federal prison consultants described Terminal Island as a "cushier" facility where inmates live in dormitory-style arrangements rather than cells.

Tucker Carlson Interview and Solitary Confinement

In March 2025, while still housed at MDC Brooklyn, Bankman-Fried conducted an unauthorized video interview with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson. In the interview, Bankman-Fried discussed his experience in prison, describing life behind bars as "soul-crushing" and mentioning that he shared a cell block with Sean "Diddy" Combs, the music mogul also detained at MDC Brooklyn. Bankman-Fried made what observers characterized as an indirect pitch for a presidential pardon from Donald Trump.

The Bureau of Prisons confirmed to The New York Times that the interview had not been authorized. Following its publication, Bankman-Fried was placed in solitary confinement—what the BOP terms the Special Housing Unit (SHU)—while prison officials investigated the violation. A federal prison consultant explained that "they'll put a violation code on it, then they will place him under investigation, and then they will issue him a sanction for his violation."

Pardon Speculation

Following the Tucker Carlson interview, speculation intensified about whether Bankman-Fried might seek a presidential pardon. According to reports, his parents have been in contact with Kory Langhofer, an Arizona attorney who previously worked on Donald Trump's presidential campaigns in 2016 and 2020. This speculation was fueled by President Trump's October 23, 2025 pardon of Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, the founder of rival exchange Binance, who had served four months in federal prison for anti-money laundering violations. Following the Carlson interview, prediction market Polymarket reported that "the odds of an SBF pardon have nearly doubled."

2025 Appeal

Bankman-Fried filed a notice of appeal in April 2024, challenging both his conviction and his 25-year sentence. His appellate legal team, led by attorney Alexandra Shapiro, filed the formal appeal brief in September 2024, with all legal documents submitted by January 2025.

Second Circuit Hearing (November 4, 2025)

On November 4, 2025, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit heard oral arguments in Bankman-Fried's appeal. The panel consisted of Circuit Judges Barrington D. Parker Jr., Eunice C. Lee, and Maria Araújo Kahn.

Defense Arguments

Attorney Alexandra Shapiro argued that the trial was "fundamentally unfair" and that Bankman-Fried had been "cut off at the knees by the judge's rulings." The defense raised two primary arguments:

Solvency Evidence: Shapiro contended that Bankman-Fried was prevented from presenting "objective evidence" that FTX remained solvent at the time of its bankruptcy filing. She noted that 98% of all FTX creditors have since received 120% of their original investments plus interest, arguing that since creditors were ultimately made whole through asset sales, no actual theft occurred. The FTX estate has already paid $8 billion to creditors and $1 billion in legal fees, with another $8 billion remaining to cover approximately $2 billion in remaining claims.

Lawyer Involvement: The defense sought to present evidence about lawyers' roles in creating corporate entities and contracts, framing this as demonstrating good faith rather than fraudulent intent. Shapiro argued that the trial judge improperly limited Bankman-Fried's testimony, preventing the jury from hearing the full role attorneys played in his decisions.

Prosecution Response

Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Rehn countered that the trial was fair and the evidence against Bankman-Fried was "overwhelming." He emphasized that three of the four people who knew Bankman-Fried was illegally using billions of dollars in customer deposits to fund his investments and political donations testified against him at trial. Rehn argued that the relevant harm occurred when customers couldn't access their funds despite assurances they could—regardless of eventual recovery through bankruptcy proceedings.

Judicial Skepticism

The three-judge panel expressed skepticism about Bankman-Fried's arguments. Judge Eunice Lee questioned the solvency argument, noting that "the objective corroboration seems to be that, well, after the bankruptcy, more money was made." She questioned how post-bankruptcy recoveries proved pre-collapse solvency.

Judge Maria Araújo Kahn distinguished between solvency and liquidity, stating that "the misrepresentations were not to solvency, but liquidity... it was an issue of liquidity, whether they could get their money if they asked for it." She cited a recent Supreme Court decision, Kousisis v. United States, which found that fraud need not necessarily result in economic loss to be considered fraud.

Judge Barrington D. Parker challenged the lawyer involvement defense, asking how attorney involvement in corporate formation proved good faith. He noted that the defense had abandoned an explicit "advice of counsel" defense, making general attorney involvement less probative. However, Judge Parker did press the government on how Bankman-Fried's $11 billion forfeiture order weighs toward FTX customer victims' losses, telling DOJ lawyer Nathan Rehn: "This is an important issue to us, so you have to please stop bobbing and weaving on it."

Possible Outcomes

As of December 2025, the Second Circuit has not yet issued a ruling. If the conviction is affirmed, Bankman-Fried's remaining legal options would be limited to seeking an en banc rehearing (a rare review by all the judges of the Second Circuit) or filing a petition for certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court. If the court reverses any portion of the verdict, the case could be remanded for a new trial or resentencing. Criminal defendants face long odds in federal appeals, with fewer than 10% of appeals resulting in reversals.

Public Statements and Positions

Throughout his prosecution, Bankman-Fried maintained that he had made mistakes but had not intended to defraud anyone. He testified at trial that the problems at FTX resulted from poor risk management rather than intentional theft, and that he had believed Alameda would be able to repay the customer funds it had borrowed.

The sentencing judge expressly rejected this characterization, finding that Bankman-Fried knew he was taking customer funds without authorization and systematically deceived investors and the public about FTX's operations. The judge's observation that Bankman-Fried had shown no remorse suggested the court found his protestations of good faith to be unpersuasive.

Federal prison consultant Sam Mangel joined the Bad Crypto podcast to discuss what prison life would be like for the former tech founder:

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Terminology

• Wire Fraud: A federal crime involving the use of electronic communications to execute a scheme to defraud.

• Securities Fraud: The crime of deceiving investors or manipulating financial markets.

• Cryptocurrency Exchange: A platform where users can buy, sell, and trade cryptocurrencies.

• Effective Altruism: A philosophical movement that advocates using evidence and reason to maximize charitable impact.

• Special Housing Unit (SHU): The Bureau of Prisons term for solitary confinement or administrative segregation.

• Second Circuit Court of Appeals: The federal appellate court covering New York, Connecticut, and Vermont that hears appeals from federal district courts in those states.

See also

• Jordan Belfort
• Martha Stewart
• Jeff Skilling
• Bernie Madoff
• Changpeng Zhao
• Caroline Ellison
• Wire Fraud
• Securities Fraud
• Money Laundering

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How long is Sam Bankman-Fried's prison sentence?

Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison on March 28, 2024. The sentence was below the 40-50 years prosecutors requested but far above the six years his defense lawyers sought. He was also ordered to pay $11 billion in forfeiture and serve three years of supervised release following his imprisonment. Our Federal Sentence Calculator estimates he will be released from Bureau of Prisons custody around October 2044.

Q: What did Sam Bankman-Fried do?

Bankman-Fried was convicted of orchestrating one of the largest financial frauds in American history through his cryptocurrency exchange FTX and trading firm Alameda Research. From 2019 through FTX's collapse in November 2022, he systematically stole billions of dollars from customers who had deposited funds on the exchange. The money was funneled to Alameda Research for speculative investments that lost billions. He also used stolen customer funds to purchase luxury real estate in the Bahamas, make over $100 million in political contributions, and support his lavish lifestyle—all while publicly claiming customer funds were safely segregated.

Q: How much money did Sam Bankman-Fried steal?

Prosecutors established that Bankman-Fried stole approximately $8 billion from FTX customers. At FTX's peak, Bankman-Fried was celebrated as a cryptocurrency wunderkind worth an estimated $26 billion. The company he founded was valued at over $30 billion before its collapse. He was ordered to forfeit $11 billion as part of his sentence.

Q: What happened to Sam Bankman-Fried's appeal in 2025?

On November 4, 2025, a three-judge panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in Bankman-Fried's appeal. His attorney Alexandra Shapiro argued the trial was "fundamentally unfair" and that he was "cut off at the knees" by the trial judge's rulings. She noted that 98% of FTX creditors have received 120% of their investments back. However, the judges appeared skeptical of these arguments. Judge Maria Kahn pointed out that fraud doesn't require economic loss, citing a recent Supreme Court precedent. A ruling remains pending as of December 2025.

Q: What prison is Sam Bankman-Fried in?

As of April 2025, Bankman-Fried is incarcerated at FCI Terminal Island, a low-security federal prison near Los Angeles. After his March 2024 sentencing, he was held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, then transferred through Oklahoma and FCI Victorville (a medium-security facility described as "notoriously hard") before arriving at Terminal Island, which prison consultants describe as a "cushier" facility with dormitory-style housing.

Q: Did Sam Bankman-Fried go to solitary confinement?

Yes. In March 2025, Bankman-Fried conducted an unauthorized video interview with Tucker Carlson while detained at MDC Brooklyn. In the interview, he described prison as "soul-crushing" and mentioned sharing a cell block with Sean "Diddy" Combs. The Bureau of Prisons confirmed the interview was not authorized, and Bankman-Fried was placed in the Special Housing Unit (solitary confinement) while officials investigated the violation.

Q: Is Sam Bankman-Fried seeking a pardon?

Bankman-Fried has not formally requested a presidential pardon, but speculation intensified after his Tucker Carlson interview appeared to be an indirect pitch for clemency. His parents have reportedly been in contact with Kory Langhofer, an attorney who worked on Trump's 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns. This speculation was fueled by President Trump's October 2025 pardon of Binance founder Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, who served four months for anti-money laundering violations.

Q: What was FTX and what happened to it?

FTX was one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, founded by Bankman-Fried in 2019. The company was valued at over $30 billion at its peak and was known for its innovative products and aggressive marketing, including a Super Bowl ad and naming rights to the Miami Heat's arena. In November 2022, news reports revealed that Alameda Research's balance sheet was heavily dependent on FTT, FTX's proprietary token. This triggered a run on the exchange as customers rushed to withdraw funds. FTX could not meet the withdrawal requests because the customer funds had been transferred to Alameda Research. The exchange filed for bankruptcy on November 11, 2022.

Q: Did FTX customers get their money back?

Yes, most FTX customers have recovered their funds through the bankruptcy process. Bankman-Fried's defense team noted during his 2025 appeal that 98% of all FTX creditors have received 120% of their original investments plus interest. The FTX estate has paid $8 billion to creditors and $1 billion in legal fees, with another $8 billion remaining to cover approximately $2 billion in remaining claims. However, prosecutors argued that the fraud occurred when customers couldn't access their funds, regardless of eventual recovery.