Sam Bankman-Fried Makes Long Shot Bid for New Trial

The motion was filed separately from his formal appeal and was submitted by his mother Barbara Fried. Bankman-Fried also requested that a different judge review the matter, as he believes the judge was biased during the original proceedings, though legal experts view the bid for a new trial as a long shot.

SBF Pushes for New Trial 

Sam Bankman-Fried is making another attempt to overturn his fraud conviction, and asked a federal court in Manhattan to grant him a new trial based on what he describes as previously unavailable witness testimony. In a motion that was filed on Feb. 5, the former FTX chief executive challenged his 2023 conviction on seven criminal counts tied to the misuse of customer funds at the collapsed crypto exchange and its affiliated trading firm, Alameda Research. The request is separate from his formal appeal and faces a steep legal hurdle, as courts rarely grant new trials once a verdict has been reached.

According to the filing, Bankman-Fried argues that testimony from former FTX executives Daniel Chapsky and Ryan Salame could undermine the government’s portrayal of the company’s financial condition before its collapse in November of 2022. Neither Chapsky nor Salame testified during the original trial. Salame later pleaded guilty to campaign finance and fraud-related charges and is currently serving a seven-and-a-half-year prison sentence.

Bankman-Fried believes that their testimony could challenge key aspects of the prosecution’s narrative, particularly around whether FTX was as financially impaired as prosecutors claimed before it imploded. His legal team suggests that this new evidence might have influenced the jury’s understanding of the exchange’s liquidity and its ability to meet customer obligations.

The motion was submitted to the court by Bankman-Fried’s mother, Barbara Fried, who is a retired Stanford law professor. Bloomberg described the effort as a long shot, as motions for a new trial must typically show newly discovered evidence that would likely produce a different outcome if a retrial were granted.

Barbara Fried

In addition to seeking a new trial, Bankman-Fried asked that a different judge review the motion. He argued that trial judge Lewis Kaplan demonstrated “manifest prejudice” during the proceedings. 

Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison after being convicted of orchestrating one of the most consequential fraud schemes in the history of the crypto industry. Prosecutors argued that he diverted billions of dollars in customer deposits from FTX to support risky trading activities at Alameda Research, as well as for other expenditures. The jury found him guilty on all seven counts brought against him.

Despite the conviction, Bankman-Fried continued to maintain his innocence and has pursued multiple legal avenues to challenge the verdict.