[Fox Business] Sam Bankman-Fried gets 25 years: Where will he serve his sentence?

FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison for fraud on Thursday by a federal judge, who made a recommendation about where the disgraced crypto king should serve his sentence.

Bankman-Fried, 32, was found guilty in November on two counts of wire fraud and five counts of conspiracy following the collapse of his crypto empire in November 2022, which has been compared to Enron. Bankman-Fried merged the assets of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange with sister hedge fund Alameda Research, and the two firms collapsed once investors moved to withdraw their funds – with billions of dollars of customer assets lost.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who oversaw Bankman-Fried’s trial in Manhattan federal court, handed down his sentence on Thursday and made a recommendation to the federal Bureau of Prisons about where the former billionaire should serve his time. 

“I strongly recommend to the Bureau of Prisons that the defendant be designated initially to a medium security facility or any lower security institution the BOP considers appropriate, and I do so for two reasons,” Judge Kaplan said.

DISGRACED CRYPTO KING SAM BANKMAN-FRIED SENTENCED TO 25 YEARS FOR FTX FRAUD

“First, I have no reason to believe that the defendant would initiate any act of violence against another prisoner or any BOP staff,” which Kaplan said would typically merit assignment to a maximum security prison facility.

“Second, defendant’s notoriety. His association with vast wealth – regardless of his present and actual financial resources – and his autism and social awkwardness are likely to make him more than usually vulnerable to misconduct by other inmates in the environment of a maximum security facility,” Kaplan explained. 

“I further recommend that the designated facility be as close to the San Francisco Bay Area as possible for the purpose of facilitating family visitation,” he added.

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The Bureau of Prisons declined to comment on the circumstances of Bankman-Fried’s assignment to a specific prison facility or provide a timeline for BOP officials to decide where he will serve his sentence. The agency offered a statement outlining the factors it considers in assigning individuals to specific correctional institutions.

“Some of the factors include the level of security and supervision the inmate requires, any medical or programming needs, separation, and security measures to ensure the individual’s protection, and other considerations including proximity to an individual’s release residence,” the BOP explained in a statement to FOX Business.

“The same criteria apply for both initial designations and re-designations for transfer to a new facility,” BOP added.

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Bankman-Fried’s parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, both reside in the San Francisco Bay Area and have worked as professors at Stanford Law School. 

Judge Kaplan’s recommendation that Sam serve his sentence at a medium security prison near the Bay Area points to two potential medium security federal prisons in northern California where he may be sent to serve his sentence – FCI Herlong and FCI Mendota.

FCI Herlong is located in Lassen County near the Nevada border northwest of Reno, Nevada, while FCI Mendota is in California’s Central Valley within Fresno County. Both correctional institutions have adjacent satellite prison camps to house minimum-security offenders. 

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Judge Kaplan’s suggestion that BOP designate Sam Bankman-Fried to a medium security facility or a lower security institution deemed appropriate by BOP could allow for his transfer to a lower security portion of either facility if he is initially sent to a medium security prison.

FOX Business’ Suzanne O’Halloran contributed to this report.

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[Fox Business] Lottery winner? Now is the time to buy your dream home

Supersized lottery jackpots may have some people fantasizing about what they would do with the funds if they won, whether that would be buying a home, paying off debt or saving.

It is, however, an even more important question for those who actually do win the lottery, like the lucky person in New Jersey who just scored a nearly $1.13 billion windfall from Mega Millions on Tuesday. Lottery winners are faced with many options.

Some winners of past jackpots or even smaller prizes have said they planned to go the homebuying route. For example, a North Carolina man who landed $1 million from a Mega Millions ticket in 2023 indicated he had plans to use it on getting a home.

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That has also happened for lottery-winning participants that appear on the HGTV series “My Lottery Dream Home” and, according to a recent Realtor.com report, the show offers insight on what houses they purchase. They reportedly often defy preconceived notions some may hold of lottery winners.

The properties that many “My Lottery Dream Home” participants with lottery prizes wind up purchasing tend to be on par with and at times below the $406,700 national median, according to the real estate-focused site.

In a statement to FOX Business, Realtor.com Executive Editor Judy Dutton said home purchases by those who win the lottery are typically not extravagant, something she said stems from it being “much more common for lotto winners to win much less money” than the “rare mega-winners.”  

“And even in cases where people do win a lot, even in the millions, they don’t necessarily want to blow it all on a huge house,” Dutton said.

Plenty make home purchases that afford them the room to easily host their families, according to Realtor.com.

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“The majority of lotto winners on ‘My Lottery Dream Home’ shop for homes with plenty of extra bedrooms, or even entire guest suites, where their grown kids and grandkids can sleep over comfortably,” Dutton said, noting it pushed back on the idea lottery winners want to keep their success to themselves.

Others have financially helped loved ones with acquiring a house, Realtor.com reported.

“My Lottery Dream Home” participants also tend to relocate within their area and to forgo exotic new places when they spend winnings on homes, according to the site.

They go with older homes instead of luxury ones in many instances “proving that cutting-edge style and upgrades aren’t always big priorities,” Dutton said.

Using funds from a lottery price to acquire a home can be a “great idea,” Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Advisor Andrea Williams told FOX Business.

“Buying property gives you a place to live without sending your money to someone else, which you do when renting,” she said. “You get to own an asset that will typically increase in value overtime.”

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She recommended lottery winners looking to buy real estate consult a financial professional and keep in mind yearly expenses a person encounters with a house.

“When buying a home and budgeting, there’s an additional 2-4% of the house value going toward annual expenses such as homeowners’ insurance, property taxes, utility bills and general maintenance,” Williams said. “So, a $500,000 home can have anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000 of annual expenses. And what we don’t want to do in this situation is become house poor.”

The next opportunity people have to nab a massive lottery grand prize is Saturday, when Powerball next draws for its $935 million jackpot.

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