FTX co-founder and key witness Gary Wang asks judge for no jail time

Gary Wang, a co-founder of FTX and the crypto exchange’s former technology chief, asked a United States federal judge to give him no jail time as he was a key witness who helped put his fellow co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried behind bars.

In a Nov. 6 sentencing memo filed in a Manhattan district court, Wang asked for time served as his “trial testimony was a cornerstone of the Government’s successful case against Bankman-Fried,” who was convicted by a jury and sentenced in April to 25 years in prison.

Wang also argued he “had the most limited role” in the estimated $10 billion fraud on FTX’s customers, compared with former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX engineering director Nishad Singh, who also took government plea deals and testified against Bankman-Fried.

On Nov. 20, Judge Lewis Kaplan is scheduled to sentence Wang, who reached a plea agreement with prosecutors on charges of fraud and criminal conspiracy. In September, Kaplan sentenced Ellison to two years in jail, and last month, he sentenced Singh to time served.

Wang argued that being sentenced to serve jail time would “create an unwarranted sentencing disparity with Singh” and would “fail to account for his relative culpability and exceptional cooperation.”

A highlighted excerpt of Wang’s arguments for why he should be given a non-custodial sentence on Nov. 20. Source: CourtListener

Wang was one of Bankman-Fried’s inner circle who was early to meet with prosecutors over a plea deal and share information on FTX’s systems. He later gave details to the exchange’s bankruptcy estate and class-action groups.

Wang was also a key witness at Bankman-Fried’s trial and testified how his fellow co-founder directed him to change FTX’s code, which allowed the exchange’s sister hedge fund Alameda to steal and trade customer funds for years before the scheme collapsed in 2022.

In his memo, Wang claimed he “did not have full visibility on the crimes” and first learned of them “after it was well underway, having been lied to and deceived by Sam Bankman-Fried.”

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He also claimed jail time would disrupt his ability to assist prosecutors and financially contribute to his family, adding he’s employed as a software engineer and is expecting a son with his longtime girlfriend and now wife later this month.

Wang said he has worked with the government to build software to detect financial fraud in public markets, and prosecutors have asked him to make a tool “focused on identifying illicit activity on crypto exchanges.”

“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,” the memo reads.

Bankman-Fried appealed his 25-year sentence in September, arguing he was “never presumed innocent” and that FTX had the funds to pay out customers all along — a fact, he claims, the jury at his trial “never got to see.”

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