Sam Bankman-Fried Appeals, Demands Retrial

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has officially filed an appeal against his 25-year sentence, requesting a retrial.

According to the New York Times, former CEO of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, has filed an appeal to the appellate court, requesting a retrial and accusing the judge of being biased against him.

Previously, in November 2023, Judge Lewis Kaplan of the Southern District of New York Court ruled that Sam Bankman-Fried was guilty of 7 counts related to the collapse of the FTX exchange, causing billions of dollars in losses to users. The former FTX CEO was officially sentenced to 25 years in prison in March 2024 and has been in custody since then.

However, in the newly filed appeal, Sam Bankman-Fried's lawyer argued that Judge Kaplan was unfair during the trial, repeatedly making comments opposing the defendant's side before the jury, as well as not accepting evidence favorable to the former FTX CEO.

In addition, Sam Bankman-Fried's lawyer continued to repeat the argument that FTX still had money to pay its customers, which was demonstrated through the recovery process of the bankruptcy unit that took over FTX over the past dozen months, so it was impossible to come to the conclusion that Sam Bankman-Fried tried to steal users' money.

In conclusion, the lawyer argued that Mr. Sam Bankman-Fried was considered guilty before the trial, by FTX users, the US government, the media, and the judge.

Meanwhile, Sam Bankman-Fried's other co-defendants are awaiting sentencing, with Ryan Salame serving a 7.5-year sentence and Caroline Ellison set to receive her sentence this September.