Sam Bankman-Fried, the founding father of bankrupt cryptocurrency alternate FTX, arrives at court docket as attorneys push to steer the decide overseeing his fraud case to not jail him forward of trial, at a courthouse in New York, August 11, 2023.
Eduardo Munoz | Reuters
The judges in a federal appeals court docket in New York on Tuesday have been skeptical of arguments by a lawyer for Sam Bankman-Fried that his conviction for a multi-billion-dollar fraud associated to his cryptocurrency alternate FTX and an related hedge fund needs to be tossed out.
Bankman-Fried’s legal professional, Alexandra Shapiro, was virtually instantly after which repeatedly interrupted by the three-judge panel on the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court docket of Appeals as she tried to make her case that SBF deserved a brand new trial as a result of the primary one was “essentially unfair.”
“From my studying of the report, [there was] very substantial proof of guilt,” Decide Barringon Parker informed Shapiro.
“Are you significantly suggesting to us that in case your consumer had been in a position to testify concerning the function that attorneys performed in getting ready these numerous paperwork, the not-guilty verdicts would have rolled in?” Parker requested, as Bankman-Fried’s mother and father seemed on from the courtroom gallery.
Bankman-Fried, 33, was convicted in November 2023 of seven prison counts for fraud towards prospects of FTX and lenders to the hedge fund Alameda Analysis. He’s serving a 25-year jail sentence.
Protection lawyer Alexandra Shapiro makes oral arguments earlier than United States Circuit Judges for the U.S. Court docket of Appeals for the Second Circuit Barington D. Parker Jr., Eunice C. Lee and Maria Araujo Kahn throughout former cryptocurrency govt Sam Bankman-Fried’s attraction of his fraud conviction in New York Metropolis, U.S., November 4, 2025 in a courtroom sketch.
Jane Rosenberg | Reuters
Shapiro argued that rulings by the trial decide, Lewis Kaplan of U.S. District Court docket in Manhattan, which included limiting what SBF may testify about, unfairly favored prosecutors.
That “allowed the prosecution to current this morally compelling story, however prevented the protection from exhibiting that the story wasn’t true,” she stated.
“The protection was minimize off on the knees by the decide’s rulings,” Shapiro informed the panel.
She stated prosecutors have been allowed to falsely argue at trial that prospects and lenders had misplaced billions of {dollars}, and would by no means have the ability to get better that cash.
In actuality, she stated, it was her understanding that 98% of all FTX collectors have acquired 120% of their investments plus curiosity, and that the FTX property has already paid $8 billion to collectors and one other $1 billion in authorized charges. She added that there’s one other $8 billion left to cowl $2 billion in remaining claims.
Assistant U.S. Legal professional Thane Rehn spent the majority of his time throughout the listening to answering questions by the decide over how an $11 billion forfeiture towards SBF is structured, and what is going to occur to that forfeiture order if all victims are made entire earlier than the whole quantity is spent.
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