The former chief technology officer of disgraced cryptocurrency exchange FTX is avoiding prison by cooperating with the US government.
According to a Reuters report, Wang — a computer programmer who unknowingly wrote the code that allowed former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried to steal billions of dollars from customers — will be spared jail for his role in FTX’s multibillion-dollar demise.
Judge Lewis A. Kaplan said Wang will avoid prison time because he served as a key witness against Bankman-Fried at the trial and then developed tools to help the government uncover fraud.
According to previous reports, Wang’s tools are intended to enable monitoring of both the stock and crypto markets.
“In a further extraordinary step, Gary has worked with the government to design and build a new software tool to detect potential financial fraud in public markets and, at the direction of prosecutors, is currently developing a separate tool aimed at identifying illegal cryptocurrency activities. exchanges.”
Bankman-Fried was found to be siphoning billions of dollars of customer funds from FTX and depositing them into Alameda Research, the cryptocurrency exchange’s sister company, as a means of arbitrage trading and making risky bets.
He was convicted of defrauding investors and mishandling customer money and sentenced to 25 years in prison. His ex-girlfriend and former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison was recently sentenced to two years behind bars for her role in the debacle.
Testifying against Bankman-Fried in 2023, Wang said he was instructed to create the code that allowed his boss to secretly transfer money from FTX to Alameda.
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