How Sam Bankman-Fried's sentencing will work

FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted on seven counts of fraud ranging from money laundering to conspiracy. In total, he faces up to 110 years in prison. Bankman-Fried's sentencing is scheduled to be held on March 28. The final sentencing decision will be made by the judge presiding over his case.

Yahoo Finance's Legal Reporter Alexis Keenan breaks down the all details, providing insights on the possible length of his sentencing based on guidelines that consider factors like the scale of money stolen.

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Video transcript

DIANE KING HALL: Sam Bankman-Fried found guilty of defrauding FTX customers, investors, and lenders in what is being considered the biggest case of its kind for a generation. After roughly four hours, the jury decided to convict him of all seven charges. Our own Alexis Keenan was in the courtroom. Alexis, paint a picture for us. What was the reaction and what was it like?

ALEXIS KEENAN: Diane, this verdict was so swift, so stunning. Just the jury deliberating for about four hours, so this was very, very fast to come to this decision, finding Bankman-Fried guilty on all seven charges charged by the Justice Department. Those being wire fraud and conspiracy of wire fraud against FTX customers, wire fraud and conspiracy against Alameda Research, that's Bankman-Fried's sister hedge fund, crypto hedge fund, against that, lenders to that entity. Also, securities fraud conspiracy, commodities fraud conspiracy, and also money laundering.

Those charges, though, as they were read, Bankman-Fried's parents sitting just over his right shoulder in the courtroom, with his father hanging his head well below the pews there in the courtroom, looking devastated, his mother tearing up as they heard this verdict read by the jury's foreperson, while just Bankman-Fried, and the foreperson-- the forewoman, I should say, read these charges and showed the jury's verdict there. The two of them standing while everybody else was seated in court.

Now, ultimately, though, the sentence, that's what comes next for Bankman-Fried in March at the end of the month, ultimately, that's going to be decided by the judge who presided over his case. The sentence is strictly at the judge's discretion. He can impose a maximum sentence in this case, when you add up all these charges, maximum prison time is 110 years.

The judge has dozens of factors that he can weigh in making that decision. And one place to start, though, is the sentencing guidelines. There are federal sentencing guidelines that give him a clue of where he might want to begin making that calculation, guys.

JOSH LIPTON: And, Alexis, you mentioned some of the things that the judge here can consider in the Bankman-Fried sentence. Tell us more about how the money allegedly stolen comes into play.

ALEXIS KEENAN: Yeah, so that's going to be a major challenge for Bankman-Fried here, because the way that the sentencing guidelines are designed, and they are-- they're not mandatory, these are recommendations, but it is definitely a place where judges begin. They take into account the amount of money that the victims of the scheme lost, and so those, though, I want to just show you on the screen.

Take a look. The suggested offense levels and these enhancements for wire fraud, the recommendation enhancement begins at $6,500. So you think about this multibillion dollar enterprise, with the government saying that Bankman-Fried took $10 billion to #14 billion from FTX customers. It goes all the way up and tops out at enhancements, if you look there, at enterprises, schemes, where victims lost more than $550 million. Certainly he far exceeds these numbers across the board.

Now, that takes Bankman-Fried from a wire fraud offense, for example, a base level 7 offense, all the way up to a level 37 offense, and that's the difference between 0 to 6 months recommended behind bars to 262 months behind bars. And if you do the math there, that's 22 years. Certainly for one of the largest-- one of the largest frauds in US history. This puts Bankman-Fried in a really challenging predicament his sentencing is set for March 28th.

DIANE KING HALL: All right, great insight, Alexis Keenan. Thank you so much for doing all of the coverage on this generational case.