Friday Briefing: Sam Bankman-Fried gets 25 years
Good morning. We’re covering the sentencing of Sam Bankman-Fried and the grim conditions facing migrant children at the U.S. border. Plus, three video game adventures for the weekend.
Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prisonSam Bankman-Fried, who was convicted of stealing $8 billion from customers of his FTX cryptocurrency exchange, was sentenced to 25 years in prison. It was a significantly lighter sentence than the maximum penalty of 110 years that his charges carried, but was well above the six and a half years sought by his defense lawyers. Bankman-Fried was also ordered to forfeit $11.2 billion in assets. The sentencing signified the finale of a sweeping fraud case that exposed greed and risk-taking across the loosely regulated world of cryptocurrencies. In November 2022, FTX imploded virtually overnight, erasing $8 billion in customer savings. At a trial last fall, Bankman-Fried was convicted of seven counts of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering. His sentence ranks as one of the longest imposed on a white-collar defendant in recent years. Bankman-Fried has vowed to appeal his conviction. But in his remarks after receiving his sentence in New York City yesterday, he appeared to accept that he would be in prison for some time. “At the end of the day, my useful life is probably over now,” he said.
Why Russia failed to prevent the Moscow attackIn the days before the attack on a concert hall near Moscow that left at least 143 dead, Russia received warning from the U.S., but its security service failed to intervene. U.S. and European officials, security experts and analysts said the security failure resulted from a combination of factors. Among them was that Russia’s counterterrorism efforts have become spread too thin. Where once the antiterror branch of the country’s Federal Security Service chased extremists, it now targets political adversaries of President Vladimir Putin as well as other Kremlin critics, L.G.B.T.Q. rights activists and Jehovah’s Witnesses. A grim milestone: Today is the first anniversary of the arrest in Russia of Evan Gershkovich, an American reporter for The Wall Street Journal. His detention on spying charges was just extended by three months. Valerie Hopkins, who covers Russia for The Times, told us that Putin is practicing “transactional diplomacy,” adding that, in an interview with Tucker Carlson, Putin “made it very clear that he wants to trade Evan specifically for Vadim Krasikov, an assassin linked to the security services.”
Health risks rise for children at the U.S. borderThe capacity at U.S. immigration processing centers is strained, and migrants, including unaccompanied children, are waiting for hours — sometimes days — in outdoor holding areas. These sites offer no shelter, meals or medical care, and the lack of basic infrastructure has set off public health concerns for the most vulnerable. A judge in California could rule as early as today on whether the U.S. is legally required to shelter and feed the children as they wait. Our reporter Emily Baumgaertner visited five migrant camps along the U.S.-Mexico border in California and wrote about the conditions. |
