FTX co-founder Gary Wang asks judge for no prison time

Sam Bankman-Fried’s college friend and FTX co-founder Gary Wang is asking a federal judge to spare him from a prison sentence a few days after FTX executive Nishad Singh was given no prison time.

FTX co-founder Gary Wang is pleading with the federal judge to grant him no jail time, the same sentence that was given to FTX’s former engineering chief, Nishad Singh during his sentencing.

In a memo addressed to the Manhattan federal court, Wang’s attorney, Ilan Graff, argued that giving Wang a prison sentence after sparing Singh would “create an unwarranted sentencing disparity.”

Graff claimed that Wang’s involvement in the fraud was much less direct compared to the other FTX execs who have testified against former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried on trial, namely former Alameda Chief Executive Officer Caroline Ellison and former FTX engineering executive Nishad Singh.

“Gary was unaware of the scheme when it started, never informed of its particulars, and unlike Bankman-Fried, Ellison, and Singh, never once took an affirmative step to deceive anyone,” Graff wrote.

Like Ellison and Singh, Wang also testified against his long-time friend, Sam Bankman-Fried. During trial, he told the jury he was instructed to alter FTX’s code so that Alameda Research could access customer funds.

Graff also stated in the memo that Wang was expecting the birth of his son just a few days after his scheduled sentencing on Nov. 20.

According to the memo, Wang has been working at an imaging technology company since February 2023 and currently wants to be “a good husband and father and continue his work with the Government and other stakeholders to facilitate FTX victims’ recovery and mitigate the risk of future frauds.”

In his memo, Wang claimed he was unaware of the crimes happening behind the scenes and found out about them “after it was well underway, having been lied to and deceived by Sam Bankman-Fried.”

Wang is one of Bankman’s closest and most trust colleagues. They met at math camp when they were teenagers before rooming together in the same fraternity at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

After working at Google, Wang worked with Bankman-Fried at Alameda Research before co-founding FTX with him in 2019. Wang operated as chief technology officer at the company while Bankman-Fried became the face of FTX as its CEO.

After FTX’s collapse, Wang was one of the first executives who met with federal prosecutors to discuss a possible deal. It was discovered that Bankman-Fried was guilty of defrauding customers and investors as much as $10 billion. He was sentenced to 25 years of prison for his crimes.

Caroline Ellison was sentenced to two years of prison, despite her attorneys initially asking for her to be spared from prison time, just like Singh and Wang.