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S.B.F.’s Appeal Chances & The New Crypto Frontiers

News and notes on the quarter-century sentencing heard round the world, plus the legal and regulatory jiu-jitsu of a new breed of finance frontiersmen.

Sam Bankman-Fried
S.B.F. shouldn’t be counted out here: As history shows, white-collar crooks tend to have a knack for turning the tables on appeal. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call/Getty Images
Eriq Gardner
April 1, 2024

When Sam Bankman-Fried heads to FCI Herlong, or whatever Bay Area medium security prison will soon house him, perhaps he’ll think long and hard about how Judge Lewis Kaplan formed an early impression of him as an uncommon thief. Throughout the entire case, right up until he dropped a 25-year prison sentence on the disgraced crypto wunderkind, Kaplan kept explaining his decision-making by drawing comparisons to a bank heist.