American entrepreneur and crypto king, Sam Bankman-Fried, received a 25-year prison sentence on Thursday for his involvement in defrauding users of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX. United States District Judge Lewis Kaplan, presiding over the federal courtroom in lower Manhattan, criticized the defense argument, calling it misleading, logically flawed, and speculative.

Judge Kaplan highlighted Bankman-Fried’s obstruction of justice and tampering with witnesses as factors considered in the sentencing decision. Bankman-Fried, acknowledging his actions as criminal, expressed regret for making a bad bet on the likelihood of being caught during the two-hour hearing. Clad in a beige jailhouse jumpsuit, he struck an apologetic tone, admitting to a series of “selfish” decisions while leading FTX and lamenting that he had “thrown it all away.”

In a statement to the court, Bankman-Fried expressed remorse, saying, “It haunts me every day. There are a lot of mistakes that I made.” However, he maintained that FTX had the capability to repay customers despite its collapse.

Prosecutors described Bankman-Fried’s actions as perpetrating “one of the biggest financial frauds” in US history, alleging that he took over $10 billion from unsuspecting customers. FTX, once valued at $32 billion, went bankrupt in 2022. Bankman-Fried had cultivated a public image that attracted celebrities, politicians, and business leaders.

While prosecutors sought a maximum sentence of 50 years, Bankman-Fried’s legal team argued for no more than six and a half years. He was convicted on seven criminal counts in November and has been detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn since then.