WASHINGTON, D.C.— Stephen Hall, Legal Director and Securities Specialist, issued the following statement in connection with the sentencing of Gary Wang, FTX’s co-founder and Chief Technology Officer.
“Gary Wang was an indispensable collaborator in FTX’s historic crime spree as FTX’s chief technical officer (and 17% equity owner), Alameda’s co-founder (who owned 10% of the company), and author of the code that allowed FTX to steal billions from its customers. He also admitted to participating in FTX’s spectacular collapse by creating FTX’s software code that allowed Alameda special ‘privileges’ on the FTX platform that gave Alameda the ‘ability to withdraw funds or transfer funds regardless of what [Alameda] had in its account, even if that would cause the account balance to become negative,’ thus allowing it to steal FTX customer funds. For these reasons and others, a sentence of no jail time for Wang once again reveals deep-seeded flaws in our justice system.
“While Wang eventually cooperated with the prosecution, he could have – and should have – come forward months sooner before FTX’s collapse. He could have been a whistleblower. He could have acted in a way that provided him with a strong basis for arguing no jail time, but he chose not to do that. All of the principals in the FTX debacle deserve significant sentences, notwithstanding their contrition and cooperation. As we have argued consistently, those who lead, direct, participate in, and help carry out serious, intentional, and damaging financial crimes must be held accountable and properly punished to deter others from violating the law.
“A strong sentence is also a matter of basic fairness. There are so many non-white-collar criminals convicted of much less significant crimes who are spending years if not decades in prisons across America. Equal justice under law means that rich, white-collar criminals should be properly punished for their crimes, too.”
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