Ahead of his Tuesday appeal hearing, Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyers have claimed that the FTX co-founder was unfairly convicted and was not allowed to tell his full story during his 2023 trial.
On Tuesday, the legal team of FTX’s co-founder and former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), is set to appeal his fraud conviction and 25-year sentence in a hearing at the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York.
In November 2023, Bankman-Fried was found guilty of seven criminal counts, including fraud and conspiracy. He was later sentenced to 25 years in prison and ordered to pay back $11 billion to FTX customers.
His legal team, led by Alexandra Shapiro, is allegedly focusing on New York Judge Lewis Kaplan, whom they have accused of “repeatedly putting a thumb on the scale to help the government and thwart the defense.”
The former crypto executive’s lawyers argued in the appeal brief that the judge had “pressed jurors into a quick verdict,” and “continually ridiculed Bankman-Fried, criticized his demeanor, and signaled his disbelief of Bankman-Fried’s testimony.”
As a result, Shapiro is expected to argue that the New York judge “wrongly blocked Bankman-Fried from telling the jury that FTX had enough assets to repay exchange customers.” Meanwhile, prosecutors were allowed to claim SBF had stolen billions of dollars from customers, which “forced” FTX into bankruptcy.
His team is also expected to claim that Bankman-Fried didn’t intend to defraud customers, that prosecutors were given an unfair advantage, and that Judge Kaplan should have allowed him to testify that he had followed FTX lawyers “in good faith.”
Bankman-Fried’s appeal has requested a new trial with a different judge. Nonetheless, the former CEO has also been seeking a pardon from US President Donald Trump as part of his attempts for an early release.
Notably, on October 23, the White House announced that Trump had pardoned Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, two years after pleading guilty. The White House’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, affirmed that the US President had “exercised his constitutional authority by issuing a pardon for Mr. Zhao, who was prosecuted by the Biden Administration in their war on cryptocurrency.”
