CNBC: FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Sentenced to 25 Years

EXCERPT:

ROONEY: “We just got out of the courtroom. Twenty five years plus three years of supervised release. Judge Kaplan going through his reasoning behind a lot of that, and among the things he talked about was Sam Bankman-Fried's perceived lying on the stand. He talked about him knowingly committing these crimes going up and brazenly lying on the stand. That did factor into this. He did talk about some of what the government recommended and said that was about 40 or 50 years. He said that was -- that was overkill, essentially. He said that was not necessary in terms of deterrence. He talked as well about -- Sara, Sara I'm getting my notes -- notes here. OK. He said -- he talked about some of the messages that Bankman-Fried had sent to reporters at the time and the 'F' regulators line came up. He said, that showed essentially that he was gambling here, that he had this expected value of the outcomes of running this business. And he said, the error here was miscalculating the risk that Sam Bankman-Fried would get caught. He said he knew what he was doing. He was gambling for this expected value. And that was really his worldview. As the judge said, it's his nature. He also went on to talk about some of his mistakes, his pithy expressions throughout all of the -- all of the criminal trial, and said in his 30 years, on the stand, he had not seen a performance like it in terms of the way he was hairsplitting, he was evading certain questions. That also factored into the sentencing. And he said, you know, he knew it was wrong. He really was betting that he wasn't going to get caught. He went on to talk about the risk that Sam Bankman-Fried would do this again. He said he had this PR strategy, talked about really him going out and talking to the press and a lot of reporters, he said, that demonstrates that he knows how to do this, and that the will is there to do this again. And that was something he said it's not a trivial risk that he would commit a similar crime, and that played into the sentencing there. Sara, that is really the -- the crux of it. He said that he, you know, doesn't want him to commit these crimes again, but again, as I mentioned, in 30 years, he had never seen the performance like that which for Judge Kaplan, a quite experienced judge, really says a lot. But Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years.”