Judge Lewis Kaplan of the United States District Court issued an unusually lenient ruling in Manhattan Federal Court. Gary Wang, a former senior executive of the now-defunct FTX exchange, will not face prison time for his role in the trading platform’s fraud case.
Wang had already pleaded guilty to his involvement in the FTX bankruptcy proceedings. Prosecutors argued that Wang did not personally benefit from the stolen $8 billion in customer funds, and Judge Kaplan accepted their claim. Despite this, Wang wrote the code that enabled Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) to misappropriate the money.
Several factors contributed to the lenient sentence. Wang’s attorney, Ilan Graff, pleaded with Judge Kaplan to commute the prison sentence, emphasizing his client’s cooperation with the prosecution. The prosecutor’s office also spoke favorably of Wang, highlighting his development of code used by the US government to combat stock market fraud.
Furthermore, Wang’s ongoing work on a program to identify cryptocurrency-related fraud is seen as crucial to his plea deal and potential avoidance of prison time. The prosecution argued that he would have the opportunity to complete this project if spared from incarceration. Additionally, Judge Kaplan considered the reliance of Wang’s young family on him.
This decision follows a similar ruling by Judge Kaplan last month, where Nishad Singh, another high-ranking FTX insider, was also spared prison time. However, other individuals involved in the FTX scandal, including Ryan Salame, Caroline Ellison, and SBF, received varying jail sentences. While SBF was sentenced to 25 years in prison, he plans to appeal the decision.