FTX Co-Founder Gary Wang Begs Judge For Freedom: Will He Escape Jail Time?

Gary Wang, FTX’s co-founder, has asked through his legal team for a non-custodial sentence in a memo filed last November 6th in connection with the United States v. Sam Bankman-Fried.

The computer programmer argued that he should not serve jail time over his supposed involvement with the failed FTX since he was a key witness against Sam Bankman-Fried.

According to Wang’s lawyer, Ilan Graff, the respondent should not serve time since he has consistently cooperated, and this lack of guilt should result in a non-custodial sentence.

Last March 28th, Sam Bankman-Fried was ordered to pay up to $11 billion in addition to a 25-year sentence. Wang’s official sentencing, as a party and key witness, is scheduled for November 20th.

In a sentencing document filed last November 6th, Wang asked that he be spared from imprisonment since he helped in building the case. On page 2 of the document, The team of Gary Wang argued that Gary’s testimony was crucial to the case.

The document added that Wang “testified powerfully” for three days and shared how Bankman-Fried exploited the system to his benefit.

Also, Wang stated that he had a limited role in the FTX’s fraud worth over $10 billion. Wang even compared his limited role to that of Caroline Ellison and Nishad Singh, who he argued had contributed more to the fraud.

According to reports, the sentencing is scheduled for November 20th, with Judge Lewis Kaplan on the bench. Last September, Judge Kaplan issued a two-year sentence for Ellison and Singh for time served.

In his defense, Wang countered that being sentenced to serve time would raise comparisons with Singh and would fail to consider his cooperation with the court and minimal culpability.

Wang belongs to Sam’s inner circle within the FTX. He was also one of those who met with the US prosecutors to strike a plea deal in exchange for information on how the FTX worked. As part of his conversations with prosecutors, Wang shared some details about FTX, which led to its bankruptcy and subsequent class actions.

Wang also participated in Sam’s trial and shared how his co-founder instructed him to change the exchange’s codes. This code change allowed Alameda Research to to steal and use customer funds before this practice unraveled in 2022.

Alameda Research was a cryptocurrency trading company that acquired and sold digital currencies in different parts of the globe. It was co-founded in 2017 by Sam Bankman-Fried and Tara MacAulay.

For Wang, he only had minimal involvement with the fraud. He also added that he only learned about it late in the day and was deceived and lied to by his friend. Aside from his participation in this trial, Wang also worked with the administration to build software systems to detect fraud.

Featured image from Yuki Iwamura, Bloomberg/Getty Images, chart from TradingView