When FTX supremo Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years behind bars back in March, he joined a long list of crypto figureheads who have been handed stiff punishments for being caught with either their fingers in the cash register or using blockchain technology to facilitate equally unscrupulous deeds.
Also on the list, there are dark web administrators (Silk Road mastermind Ross Ulbricht and Dream Market’s Gal Vallerius), price manipulators (Mango Markets’ Avraham Eisenberg), and insider traders (NFT swindler Nathaniel Chastain).
And, as you’d expect from some of the most powerful players in a fledgling industry that’s been referred to as both ‘the future of finance’ and the ‘Wild West,’ the amounts they’ve been convicted of stealing, misappropriating, or earning are far from insignificant. In some cases, we’re talking tens of billions.
As such, regulators, governments, and law enforcement — particularly those in the US — have to be seen to be doing something. And, if you can’t stop these crimes from happening, the next best thing is to hand out suitable punishments.
Indeed, sentences dished out so far range from a few months to full-life terms. But who’ll be free by the end of the year and who’s going to be enjoying prison food for the next quarter of a century?
Click here for a chart comparing the sentences given in the US to some of the most high-profile crypto criminals over the past decade.