Cryptocurrency fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried received more than double the prison sentence of Theranos scammer Elizabeth Holmes, but only a small fraction of the term slapped onto infamous financial criminal Bernie Madoff. Bankman-Fried, the fallen “crypto king” and son of Stanford Law professors, was sentenced Thursday in federal court in Manhattan to 25 years in prison.
Here’s a rundown of the prison penalties of notorious American fraud artists, bamboozlers, and scammers from the Bay Area and beyond:
Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, bilked investors in her Palo Alto startup out of $381 million: 11 years, 3 months
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, oversaw disappearance of $10 billion: 25 years
Sunny Balwani, former Theranos president and co-fraudster with Holmes: 12 years, 11 months
Multi-billion-dollar Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff: 150 years
Scotts Valley $50 million mini-Madoffs John Geringer and Christopher Luck: 12 years, 1 month; and 10 years, 10 months, respectively
Fritz Kramer, $10 million Swiss gold-and-diamond-mines scammer of Santa Clara County victims: 9 years
Monterey up-to-$20-million lending cheat David Nilsen: 8 years, 1 month
Rodney Hatfield, more-than-$1-million bamboozler who targeted his own Watsonville Jehovah’s Witness congregation: 2 years, 6 months
Former WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers, involved in $11 billion accounting impropriety: 25 years
Former Tyco International chief Dennis Kozlowski, looter of close to $100 million: 8 years, 4 months to 25 years
Former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling, whose illegal shenanigans helped render $60 billion in Enron stock worthless and cost employees $2 billion in pension money: 24 years, later cut to 14 years
Sholam Weiss, $450 million insurance fraudster: 845 years (sentenced commuted, and freed in 2021 by former President Donald Trump)
Martha Stewart, gained about $227,000 through insider trading: 5 months
How long Bankman-Fried spends in prison will be determined by a U.S. Bureau of Prisons formula that takes into account inmate behavior and participation in prison programs. If he meets all requirements, Bankman-Fried would still serve more than 20 years in prison.
