REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg
- Sam Bankman-Fried's lawyers claimed that FTX customers had "zero" losses when the exchange collapsed.
- They argued in favor of a light sentence for the convicted crypto mogul on Thursday.
- The judge was not persuaded.
The federal judge who oversaw Sam Bankman-Fried's criminal case sharply criticized his legal team during the disgraced cryptocurrency mogul's sentencing hearing Thursday, saying he "rejected entirely" their claims about "zero" losses for FTX customers.
"The defendant's assertion that FTX customers will be made whole is misleading, it is legally flawed, it is speculative," US District Judge Lewis Kaplan said near the start of the hearing in Manhattan federal court, where he sentenced Bankman-Fried to 25 years in prison.