Gary Wang, one of Sam Bankman-Fried’s longtime friends and a key witness at his trial, is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 20.
Gary Wang, co-founder of FTX and its former technology chief, has requested no prison time in a sentencing memo filed in a Manhattan district court on November 6.
Wang argues his “trial testimony was a cornerstone of the Government’s successful case against Bankman-Fried,” leading to the conviction and April sentencing of his co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who received 25 years.
However, Wang highlighted his “most limited role” in FTX’s alleged $10 billion fraud compared to ex-Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX engineering director Nishad Singh.
Both Ellison and Singh also reached plea agreements and testified against Bankman-Fried.
Judge Lewis Kaplan, who sentenced Ellison to two years in September and gave Singh time served last month, will deliver Wang’s sentence on November 20.
Wang’s memo emphasizes that a jail term for him would “create an unwarranted sentencing disparity with Singh” and “fail to account for his relative culpability and exceptional cooperation.”
Moreover, Wang was an early cooperator with U.S. prosecutors, detailing FTX’s systems, assisting the bankruptcy estate, and supporting class-action suits.
In Bankman-Fried’s trial, Wang testified that Bankman-Fried instructed him to alter FTX’s code to allow its sister hedge fund Alameda Research to access and trade customer funds until the 2022 collapse.
Wang claimed he “did not have full visibility on the crimes,” stating he learned of the misconduct “after it was well underway, having been lied to and deceived by Sam Bankman-Fried.”
Meanwhile, Wang also noted that a prison sentence would impact his ability to assist prosecutors and support his family, as he is employed as a software engineer and expecting a child with his wife.
His contributions include collaborating with the government to develop software for detecting financial fraud in public markets, with plans for a tool “focused on identifying illicit activity on crypto exchanges.”
The memo concludes, “Gary wants nothing more than to be a good husband and father and continue his work with the Government and other stakeholders to facilitate FTX victims’ recovery and mitigate the risk of future frauds.”
Meanwhile, Bankman-Fried has appealed his sentence, arguing he was “never presumed innocent” and that FTX could have reimbursed its customers—a fact he claims the jury “never got to see.”
