(Bloomberg) -- FTX co-founder Gary Wang has been spared from prison over his role in the multibillion dollar fraud at the cryptocurrency exchange after prosecutors praised his early cooperation in the case.

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Wang, whose assistance helped convict the orchestrator of the fraud, Sam Bankman-Fried, was sentenced to time served Wednesday by US District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan in Manhattan.

The judge said Wang, 31, had done the right thing for both himself and the country by cooperating so quickly to help unravel one of the biggest financial frauds in US history. Kaplan appeared taken aback by the prosecution’s strong advocacy for Wang.

“I’ve never seen anything quite like what happened here,” the judge said, adding that Wang is “entitled to a world of credit.”

After FTX imploded in late 2022, Wang was the first cooperator through the door at the US Attorney’s Office and went above and beyond to help investigators, his lawyers and the government pointed out. Wang, whose wife is expecting their first child this month, even built a software program to help the Justice Department detect fraud in financial markets.

Bankman-Fried is serving 25 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of orchestrating the yearslong fraud that allowed customer funds to be diverted to sister hedge fund Alameda Research. From there, money was spent on luxury real estate, campaign donations and risky investments.

“I profoundly regret my choices,” Wang said during brief remarks at the hearing, becoming emotional at times. “Nothing I do will ever be able to make up for those choices.”

Wang said he wished to remain free so he could continue helping FTX’s bankruptcy estate and provide for his family.

MIT, Math Camp

Wang was ordered to forfeit more than $11 billion — the same amount for all the defendants. According to a judgment filed after the sentencing, Wang has already satisfied the order by agreeing to liquidate his Vanguard and Coinbase accounts and give the proceeds to the US. Wang also agreed to give up any interest in the more than $600 million in proceeds seized from a Robinhood Markets account affiliated with Bankman-Fried and FTX nearly two years ago.

Wang and Bankman-Fried had been friends for years, having met at math camp as teenagers before joining the same fraternity at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Bankman-Fried enticed Wang to leave his job as a software engineer at Google and help him build Alameda Research. In a few years the men would become young billionaires after launching FTX, one of the biggest crypto exchanges in the world.