In court filings, Bankman-Fried's attorneys said his case aligned more closely to that of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, who was sentenced to 11 years for fraud, rather than that of Bernie Madoff, who was sentenced to 150 years for stealing billions from investors in a massive Ponzi scheme.

An even better comparison, they argued, was Michael Milken, the 1980s Wall Street investment titan who served two years in prison for securities fraud and later became a noted philanthropist. Bankman-Fried, they said, also intended to dedicate his life to charitable work after serving his sentence.