Assistant U.S Attorney Nicolas Roos on Thursday said the one-time wunderkind’s illegal campaign contributions to Democrats and Republicans, totaling tens of millions of dollars, represented “the largest election crime in the United States’ history.”

Three of Bankman-Fried’s top executives pleaded guilty to participating in his scheme, including his ex, Caroline Ellison, after he was indicted in December 2022 and extradited to the U.S. from the Bahamas, where FTX was based.

Jurors heard from two at the trial and saw extensive evidence that as he rose to fame running the world’s second most popular digital currency exchange, the California native financially ruined hundreds of thousands, many of whom were not of means. Among the A-list celebrities to endorse FTX as the “safest and easiest way to buy and sell crypto” were supermodel Gisele Bündchen, comedian Larry David, and sports stars Tom Brady, Shaquille O’Neal, Steph Curry, and Naomi Osaka.

In a 20-minute, sometimes rambling statement to the court, Bankman-Fried, who looked to be letting his shaggy hairstyle grow back, said he agreed with “most” of what Kavuri said and recognized his victims had gone through the hell of losing all their money and the gains they’d believed they made through his trading platform.

“It’s been excruciating to watch all of this unfold in slow motion. Customers don’t deserve any of that pain, and I, I was — I was the CEO of FTX … That means that, that I was responsible for what happened to it, at the end of the day,” he said. “I was responsible for FTX, and it collapsed on me.”

He also spoke about his former colleagues at FTX, “who poured themselves into the company for years and then watched me throw away everything they had built.”

“At the end of the day, I failed everyone I care about and everything,” he said. “My useful life is probably over. It’s been over for a while now, from before my arrest.”

The feds had asked Kaplan to sentence Bankman-Fried to 40 to 50 years, while probation officials had recommended 100.

Roos, the assistant U.S. attorney, told the court Bankman-Fried, a self-described “effective altruist,” wasn’t a monster but greedy and “someone who committed gravely serious crimes that affected hundreds of thousands or more” around the world “in indescribable ways.”

“There’s a real possibility that given the opportunity, (he’d) consider doing it again,” Roos said.

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