(Bloomberg) -- Gary Wang, a computer programmer who helped build the FTX crypto empire, asked a federal judge to spare him from prison because of his role as a key witness at the fraud trial against his long-time friend, Sam Bankman-Fried.
In a sentencing memo filed in Manhattan federal court on Wednesday, his attorney Ilan Graff said Wang’s cooperation and his relative lack of culpability should result in a non-custodial sentence. Bankman-Fried received a 25-year sentence after being convicted by a jury last year.
Wang is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 20 by US District Judge Lewis Kaplan. In the memo, his lawyer said Wang was expecting the birth of his son just days later. Federal white-collar convicts are rarely taken into custody immediately after sentencing.
Wang, who co-founded FTX along with Bankman-Fried, pleaded guilty to fraud and criminal conspiracy as part of an agreement struck with prosecutors in the weeks after the crypto exchange’s collapse in 2022. Wang was a crucial witness at Bankman-Fried’s trial, telling a jury how he was directed to alter FTX’s code to allow sister hedge fund Alameda Research to tap into customer funds for years.
In the memo, Graff said Wang was less directly involved in the fraud scheme than the other main cooperators, former Alameda Chief Executive Officer Caroline Ellison and engineering executive Nishad Singh, who also testified at trial.
“Gary was unaware of the scheme when it started, never informed of its particulars, and unlike Bankman-Fried, Ellison, and Singh, never once took an affirmative step to deceive anyone,” Graff wrote.
Ellison was sentenced to two years behind bars while Singh received no jail time. Graff said giving Wang prison time would “create an unwarranted sentencing disparity” with Singh.
Since February 2023, Wang has been working at an imaging technology company, according to the memo. He married in January 2023 and “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.”
Wang was among Bankman-Fried’s most trusted colleagues and friends. The pair met as teenagers at math camp before living together in the same Massachusetts Institute of Technology fraternity.
After a short stint at Google, Wang joined Bankman-Fried at Alameda Research before co-founding FTX in 2019. The pair eventually relocated to the Bahamas where they lived in the company penthouse, Wang preferring to operate as chief technology officer in the background while Bankman-Fried courted investors and became the public face of FTX.
After staying by Bankman-Fried’s side during FTX’s final chaotic days in November 2022, Wang became one of the early executives to meet with the federal prosecutors in New York about a possible deal.
FTX’s Final, Frantic Days Through the Lens of an SBF Insider
Bankman-Fried was convicted of carrying out a yearslong fraud at FTX, once one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges. Prosecutors estimated that the fraud cost customers, investors and lenders at the time as much as $10 billion.
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