From Vijay Mallya To Sam Bankman Fried: Rich Businessmen Who Have Faced Jail Sentence

Once called crypto robinhood and crypto king, FTX¡¯s former CEO Sam Bankman Fried was recently sentenced to 25 years in prison for defrauding customers and investors of his now-bankrupt cryptocurrency firm. But the crypto billionaire is neither the first nor the only one to face this.

Here¡¯s a list of billionaire businessmen who had gone to jail or are currently serving prison sentences.

Billionaires Behind Bars: Rich Businessmen Who Have Gone To Jail

sam bankman fried/people

Rana Kapoor

Time behind bars:3 years, 9 months and 13 days

Vijay Mallya

Vijay Mallya /BCCL

Time behind bars:4 months

Mehul Choksi

Time behind bars: 51 days

Allen Stanford

Time behind bars: 110-year sentence

Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev

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Time behind bars: 10 years

Raj Rajaratnam

Raj Rajaratnam /getty

Time behind bars: 7.5 years

Joaqu¨ªn Guzm¨¢n Loera (aka El Chapo)

Time behind bars: Life sentence

John Kapoor

John Kapoor/bloomberg

Time behind bars:2 years

Thomas Kwok

Time behind bars:5 years

Michael Milken

Time behind bars:2 years

Jay Y. Lee

Time behind bars:18 months

Elizabeth Holmes

Elizabeth Holmes/getty

Time behind bars:9 years

S. Curtis Johnson

Time behind bars:3 months

Singh Brothers

Bhai Mohan Singh and Parvinder ranbaxy/thefederal

Time behind bars: 6 months

Why Crypto King SFB Has Been Jailed For 25 Years?

Sam Bankman-Fried, a co-founder of the defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX, was found guilty of defrauding investors and customers of his now-bankrupt company and received a 25-year prison sentence.

The decision solidifies the former billionaire's demise. Prior to his company's catastrophic collapse in 2022, he had become a well-known advocate for cryptocurrencies. It was discovered that, prior to the failure, he had stolen billions from customers. Attorneys for Bankman-Fried will file an appeal to overturn his conviction, as per BBC report.

Before it collapsed and went bankrupt, FTX was among the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, making Bankman-Fried a household name in the business world and drawing millions of users who bought and traded cryptocurrencies on the platform.Judge Lewis Kaplan harshly criticized Bankman-Fried's actions prior to imposing the sentence on March 28, 2024. During his testimony at trial, Bankman-Fried claimed he was unaware until the very last moment that his companies were taking money that customers had entrusted to them for safekeeping and using it for other purposes.

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