By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Former cryptocurrency government Gary Wang, who wrote the pc code that helped FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried steal about $8 billion from clients of the now-bankrupt trade, was spared jail time by a choose on Wednesday.
U.S. District Decide Lewis (JO:) Kaplan introduced he could be imposing no jail time at a listening to in federal court docket in Manhattan.
Wang, who’s in his early 30s and had pleaded responsible to 4 felony counts of fraud and conspiracy, testified final 12 months as a prosecution witness within the trial that led to Bankman-Fried’s conviction on fraud and different fees.
Wang and Bankman-Fried met at a summer season math camp whereas they had been each in highschool. They reconnected whereas finding out on the Massachusetts Institute of Expertise, and finally went into the cryptocurrency enterprise collectively.
Wang was one in every of a number of FTX executives who lived with Bankman-Fried in a $35 million penthouse within the Bahamas, the place the trade was based mostly till its November 2022 chapter.
Bankman-Fried, 32, is serving a 25-year jail sentence imposed by Kaplan after a jury final 12 months discovered him responsible of stealing buyer cash to prop up his Alameda Analysis hedge fund, make speculative enterprise investments, and contribute to U.S. political campaigns.
The fallen wunderkind is interesting his conviction and sentence.
Wang, FTX’s former chief know-how officer, advised the jury in October 2023 that his former boss instructed him to regulate FTX’s software program code to provide Alameda particular privileges, enabling the fund to secretly withdraw billions of {dollars} from the trade.
Prosecutors with the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace in Manhattan had urged leniency, citing Wang’s cooperation within the case towards Bankman-Fried. They mentioned he was additionally much less concerned than different co-conspirators within the fraud.
“He didn’t spend a dime of buyer cash,” the prosecutors wrote.
In addition they mentioned Wang had constructed software program to assist the U.S. authorities uncover fraud within the inventory market. He’s additionally engaged on an analogous software for cryptocurrency markets, which prosecutors mentioned he might full if spared jail time.
Wang’s lawyer Ilan Graff implored Kaplan to spare his consumer jail time due to his help to prosecutors.
Wang is the final member of Bankman-Fried’s former inside circle to be sentenced by Kaplan.
Bankman-Fried’s former girlfriend and Alameda Chief Govt Caroline Ellison was sentenced to 2 years behind bars in September. Nishad Singh, one other FTX laptop programmer who pleaded responsible, was spared jail time final month.