(Reuters) —  A federal judge Thursday sentenced Sam Bankman-Fried to 25 years in prison for stealing $8 billion from customers of the now-bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange he founded, the last step in the former billionaire wunderkind's dramatic downfall.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan handed down the sentence at a Manhattan court hearing after rejecting Mr. Bankman-Fried's claim that FTX customers did not actually lose money and accusing him of lying during his trial testimony. A jury found Mr. Bankman-Fried guilty on Nov. 2 on seven fraud and conspiracy counts stemming from FTX's 2022 collapse in what prosecutors have called one of the biggest financial frauds in U.S. history.

Judge Kaplan said Mr. Bankman-Fried had shown no remorse.

“He knew it was wrong,” the judge said before handing down the sentence. “He knew it was criminal. He regrets that he made a very bad bet about the likelihood of getting caught. But he is not going to admit a thing, as is his right.”

Mr. Bankman-Fried acknowledged during 20 minutes of remarks to the judge that FTX customers had suffered and he offered an apology to his former FTX colleagues.

The sentence marked the culmination of Mr. Bankman-Fried's plunge from an ultra-wealthy entrepreneur and major political donor to the biggest trophy to date in a crackdown by U.S. authorities on malfeasance in cryptocurrency markets. He has vowed to appeal his conviction and sentence.

Judge Kaplan said he had found that FTX customers lost $8 billion, FTX's equity investors lost $1.7 billion, and that lenders to the Alameda Research hedge fund Mr. Bankman-Fried founded lost $1.3 billion.

“The defendant's assertion that FTX customers and creditors will be paid in full is misleading, it is logically flawed, it is speculative,” Judge Kaplan said. “A thief who takes his loot to Las Vegas and successfully bets the stolen money is not entitled to a discount on the sentence by using his Las Vegas winnings to pay back what he stole.”

The judge also said Mr. Bankman-Fried lied during his trial testimony when he said he did not know that his hedge fund had spent customer deposits taken from FTX.

Federal prosecutors had sought a prison sentence of 40 to 50 years. Mr. Bankman-Fried's defense lawyer Marc Mukasey had argued that a sentence of less than 5-1/4 years would be appropriate.