Sam Bankman-Fried’s ex-deputy Gary Wang spared prison time over FTX fraud

Former cryptocurrency executive Gary Wang, who unwittingly wrote the computer code that helped FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried steal about US$8 billion from customers of the now-bankrupt exchange, was spared prison time by a judge on Wednesday.

US District Judge Lewis Kaplan announced he would be imposing no prison time at a hearing in federal court in Manhattan. The judge praised Wang’s cooperation with prosecutors, and noted that he learned of Bankman-Fried’s fraud later than others in his former boss’s orbit.

“You’re entitled to a world of credit for facing up to your responsibility,” Kaplan said. “The period of your culpability was in comparison to the periods of the culpability of the other defendants in this case extremely small.”

Wang, who is in his early 30s and had pleaded guilty to four felony counts of fraud and conspiracy, testified last year as a prosecution witness in the trial that led to Bankman-Fried’s conviction on fraud and other charges.

Wang and Bankman-Fried met at a summer maths camp while they were both in high school. They reconnected while studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and eventually went into the cryptocurrency business together.

Wang was one of several FTX executives who lived with Bankman-Fried in a US$35 million penthouse in the Bahamas, where the exchange was based until its November 2022 bankruptcy.