Former SBF deputy Gary Wang avoids jail in FTX fraud case

Former Cryptocurrency Executive Gary Wang, Who Wrote Computer Code That Helped FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried stole approximately $8 billion Customers of the now-bankrupt exchange were spared jail time by a judge on Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan announced he would not impose any prison time during a hearing in federal court in Manhattan.

Wang, who is about 30 years old and had Convicted on four serious counts of fraud and conspiracyTestified as a prosecution witness at the trial last year that led to Bankman-Fried’s conviction on fraud and other charges.

Wang and Bankman-Fried met at a summer mathematics camp when they were both in high school.

They reconnected while studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and eventually went into cryptocurrency business together.

Wang was one of several FTX executives who lived with Bankman-Fried in a $35 million penthouse in the Bahamas, where the exchange was based until its November 2022 bankruptcy.

Bankman-Fried, 32, is serving a 25-year prison sentence imposed by Kaplan after a jury last year found him guilty Stealing clients’ money to promote his Alameda Research hedge fund, make speculative venture investments, and contribute to political campaigns.

is a fallen wunderkind to appeal one’s conviction and sentence,

Wang, FTX’s former chief technology officer, told a jury in October 2023 that his former boss had instructed him Adjust the software code of FTX To grant Alameda special privileges, allowing the fund to secretly withdraw billions of dollars from the exchange.

Prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan had asked for leniency in the case against Bankman-Fried, citing Wang’s cooperation. He said he was less involved than others co-conspirator in fraud,

“He never spent a penny of the client’s money,” prosecutors wrote.

He also said that Wang had created software to help the US government uncover stock market fraud. He is also working on a similar tool for cryptocurrency markets, which prosecutors have said he could complete if he avoids jail.

Wang’s attorney Ilan Graff urged Kaplan to spare his client time in prison due to his assistance to prosecutors.

Wang is the last member of Bankman-Fried’s former inner circle to be sentenced by Kaplan.