Sam Bankman-Fried loses bid to overturn crypto fraud conviction, 25-year prison sentence

Sam Bankman-Fried on Friday lost his bid to overturn his fraud conviction and 25-year prison sentence over the collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange he founded.In a unanimous decision, a three-judge panel of the Manhattan-based 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals said prosecutors’ evidence against Bankman-Fried “was, conservatively stated, robust.”“While he was publicly reassuring customers, investors and regulators that FTX customer funds were safe, he was simultaneously using FTX as his own personal piggy bank, spending customer funds on real estate, political contributions, and investments,” Circuit Judge Barrington Parker wrote on behalf of the panel.Bankman-Fried’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. They may next ask all the active judges on the 2nd Circuit to hear the case, or ask the US Supreme Court to take up the case.Bankman-Fried is also seeking a pardon from President Trump, according to the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney.Neither the White House nor the Justice Department immediately responded to requests for comment.Bankman-Fried, who had been one of the cryptocurrency sector’s most influential figures and a multibillionaire before FTX’s spectacular collapse in 2022, was found guilty on seven felony charges by a federal jury in Manhattan in 2023.Prosecutors with the Manhattan US Attorney’s office said he stole $8 billion from FTX customers to plug losses at his crypto-focused hedge fund, Alameda Research, in what they termed a “fraud of epic proportions.”Bankman-Fried had pleaded not guilty to the two counts of fraud and five counts of conspiracy that he faced.

At his trial, he admitted to making mistakes running FTX, but testified that he never stole funds.In appealing the conviction, Bankman-Fried’s defense lawyers argued that US District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who oversaw the trial, improperly prevented Bankman-Fried from introducing evidence to back up his belief that F...