FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, the company which formerly sponsored the Mercedes Formula 1 team, has been given a 25-year prison sentence.
Mercedes entered into partnership with cryptocurrency outfit FTX back in 2021 which saw their branding feature prominently for the team around paddock and on the track, but this union came to an end prior to the 2022 Brazilian Grand Prix.
Former Mercedes sponsor CEO jailed
The company had filed for bankruptcy at that point and now, Bankman-Fried has been handed a 25-year jail sentence due to fraudulent activities.
Bankman-Fried was convicted in November on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy to launder money, while he was also deemed responsible for losing roughly $10 billion in customer money, his sentence having now been handed out at Manhattan federal court.
Bankam-Fried has also been ordered to forfeit $11 billion in assets to the United States government.
In handing out the sentence, Judge Lewis Kaplan said: “There is a risk that this man will be in position to do something very bad in the future. And it’s not a trivial risk at all”, while adding that Bankman-Fried had never offered “a word of remorse for the commission of terrible crimes.”
As part of a statement issued by Mercedes following the suspension of their FTX alliance back at the 2022 Brazilian Grand Prix, the team said: “As a first step, we have suspended our partnership agreement with FTX.
“This means the company will no longer appear on our race car and other branded assets from this weekend.”
The 2022 Brazilian GP marks the scene of Mercedes’ most recent Formula 1 victory, George Russell having won the sprint race and then the Grand Prix, as Lewis Hamilton ensured a 1-2 finish for the team on Grand Prix Sunday.
Since then Mercedes have been unable to take to the top step of the podium again amid intense Red Bull domination of the sport. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz is the only non-Red Bull Grand Prix winner since 2022, his latest of three victories coming last time out at the Australian Grand Prix.
