Gary Wang, the former CEO of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, who testified against founder Sam Bankman-Fried, attends his sentencing on fraud charges in US District Court in Manhattan in New York City, US, November 20, 2024.
Brendan McDiarmid | Reuters
Gary Wang, co-founder and former CTO of FTX, was sentenced Wednesday to time served and three years of supervised release on each of four charges to which he pleaded guilty, becoming the fifth and final former employee of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange. To be punished. Wang was also ordered to forfeit $11 billion, the same amount received by the other defendants.
Wang, who took the stand in the trial against his former boss Sam Bankman-Fried, faced a maximum sentence of 50 years on the four criminal charges to which he pleaded guilty, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit commodity fraud. and conspiracy to commit securities fraud.
After former FTX engineering chief Nishad Singh successfully avoided prison time when sentenced by Judge Lewis Kaplan last month, Wang was seeking the same punishment citing his almost immediate cooperation with the government.
When given the opportunity to address the court, Wang said he felt deeply sorry for all customers and investors of FTX.
“I took the easy way out, the cowardly way, instead of doing the right thing,” Wang said in a short speech to the court, holding up a single printed sheet of paper that he never pointed to from the stand.
He added: “I will spend the rest of my life trying to make amends.”
Wang's parents, as well as his wife, who is expecting her first child, were present in court to support him.
Wang's lawyers say he did not have a full view of the crimes, unlike other cooperating witnesses, and did not know that FTX Alameda Research's sister hedge fund was taking clients' money until after the scheme began.
The government was also seeking leniency for Wang.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas Ross described Wang as the easiest cooperating witness he had ever worked with, and credited Wang with essentially deciphering half the case for the government by precisely deciphering the complex code used by FTX that allowed a client's money to be taken. OTC.
In a sentencing memorandum, prosecutors added that since testifying against the former FTX CEO, Wang had “used his extraordinary computer programming skills to spot potential fraud in the stock and cryptocurrency markets,” and built a front that the government has begun using. To detect potential fraud by publicly traded companies.
Additionally, “Wang has also been working on a tool to detect potential illegal activity in cryptocurrency markets, which if Wang is sentenced to time, the government understands he will complete as part of his ongoing cooperation.”
Ross also noted that Wang was the first FTX employee to walk through the government's door but the last to be sentenced, as criminal proceedings at FTX near their end.
In March, Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison and ordered to pay $11 billion, the harshest sentence ever given by Judge Kaplan.
Former Alameda CEO Carolyn Ellison, who was the star witness in the trial of Bankman Freed and his ex-girlfriend, was sentenced to two years in prison for her role in the crime. Ryan Salama, another former top lieutenant of Bankman-Fried, was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison in May — beyond the maximum recommended by prosecutors.
All of FTX's former executives faced sentencing before Judge Kaplan. The no-nonsense 78-year-old judge is a veteran of the Southern District of New York and has presided over some of the largest cases ever brought to trial in his courtroom at 500 Pearl Street in midtown Manhattan.
“I've never seen anything like what happened here,” Kaplan said of Wang's collaboration. “You're entitled to a lot of credit.”
