On Friday, Sam Bankman-Fried’s defence team asserted that the jury’s conviction was fundamentally compromised due to the exclusion of critical evidence. The defence contends that U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan’s preclusion of evidence, which would have demonstrated FTX’s ability to satisfy customer withdrawals, resulted in a distorted presentation of the case. According to the 102-page brief submitted to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, attorney Alexandra Shapiro argued that the government’s case was predicated on a misleading narrative, implying that FTX’s customers, lenders, and investors had irrevocably lost their assets. Shapiro urged the appellate court to overturn Bankman-Fried’s conviction and 25-year sentence, asserting that the jury was deprived of essential information.
The U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan, which is handling the prosecution, has declined to comment on the appeal. Criminal defendants face a rigorous standard in challenging their convictions, as they must establish that judicial errors were so prejudicial that they compromised the fairness of the trial.
FTX’s bankruptcy filing in November 2022 followed a wave of customer withdrawals, marking a dramatic downfall for Bankman-Fried, who had been regarded as a reputable figure in the cryptocurrency sector. Despite FTX’s assurance of full recovery for customer claims based on their account values at the time of bankruptcy, some customers feel shortchanged due to the subsequent rise in cryptocurrency prices.
Bankman-Fried was charged in December 2022 with misappropriating $8 billion in customer funds to cover deficits at his hedge fund, Alameda Research. During his trial in late 2023, Bankman-Fried acknowledged operational errors but denied allegations of theft, attributing the company’s failures to other executives. The jury convicted him of multiple counts of fraud and conspiracy. In sentencing, Judge Kaplan condemned Bankman-Fried for his erroneous gamble on avoiding detection. He is currently incarcerated at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.