Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), co-founder of the collapsed crypto change FTX, has filed an enchantment difficult his fraud conviction on Sept. 13, arguing that the trial was tainted by judicial bias and procedural errors.
The enchantment, submitted to the Second Circuit Court docket of Appeals on Sept. 13, alleged unfairness throughout the authorized proceedings that resulted in SBF’s 25-year-long jail sentence and requested a brand new trial.
SBF was convicted on a number of prices in October 2023, together with fraud and conspiracy, for his position in FTX’s dramatic collapse within the earlier yr.
Presumed responsible
In March, US District Decide Lewis Kaplan sentenced him to 25 years in jail. SBF’s new authorized group, led by lawyer Alexandra Shapiro, now argues that Kaplan’s dealing with of the case was biased and improperly influenced the end result.
Within the enchantment, Shapiro claimed that Decide Kaplan made prejudicial remarks earlier than the jury, portraying SBF as responsible earlier than the trial’s conclusion. The protection additionally criticized the choose for proscribing key protection arguments, together with proof associated to SBF’s investments that might have proven his efforts to stabilize the corporate.
Moreover, the enchantment raised issues about procedural points, together with the declare that SBF was denied entry to exculpatory proof, referred to as Brady materials, which may have supported his protection. His authorized group contended that the federal government and the chapter property overseeing FTX’s dissolution labored too intently, limiting the protection’s capacity to current a full case.
Reversing the conviction
On the coronary heart of SBF’s protection is his insistence that FTX’s monetary points weren’t as extreme as portrayed and that many shoppers may get better their funds by means of chapter proceedings. His authorized group argued that the courtroom unfairly blocked this argument from being offered to the jury, creating what they described as an incomplete image of the corporate’s monetary state.
The enchantment additionally highlighted testimony from a number of of SBF’s former associates, together with Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang, who cooperated with prosecutors after pleading responsible to fraud prices. These testimonies had been central to the prosecution’s case in opposition to the FTX founder.
SBF’s protection had initially sought a lowered sentence, arguing that he had no felony intent and that FTX’s collapse was on account of market situations and mismanagement, not deliberate fraud. Nonetheless, his newest enchantment seeks to reverse the conviction completely, with a brand new trial because the aim.
Because the enchantment course of begins, SBF stays in custody, persevering with to serve his sentence. The end result of the enchantment may have important implications for his future, in addition to the broader fallout from FTX’s collapse, which stays a pivotal second within the crypto trade’s historical past.