Appeals Court to Hear Sam Bankman-Fried’s Bid to Redo FTX Fraud Trial
The post Appeals Court to Hear Sam Bankman-Fried’s Bid to Redo FTX Fraud Trial appeared com. FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried’s gamble that the U. S.’s legal system will set him free three years after his empire collapsed may be about to hit its end. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments in Bankman-Fried’s effort to appeal his conviction and 25-year prison sentence two years and two days after a jury unanimously found him guilty on seven different conspiracy and fraud charges. The Nov. 4 hearing will allot both Southern District of New York prosecutors t, now run by former Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Jay Clayton, and Bankman-Fried’s new defense team headed by leading white collar appellate attorney Alexandra Shapiro 10 minutes apiece to present their arguments. The judges on the panel may ask their own questions during the proceeding to clarify details. The hearing will not relitigate the charges themselves, but rather, whether the trial was conducted appropriately. Bankman-Fried, the appellant, wants a new trial with a new judge, according to his team’s opening brief, filed in September 2024. His team argued that District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who oversaw Bankman-Fried’s trial, was biased against the one-time FTX CEO and made unfair comments throughout the trial which undermined the defense. He has a high bar to clear, according to lawyers who discussed the process with CoinDesk. The prosecution argued in its opening brief that the trial was conducted appropriately and Bankman-Fried’s conviction and sentence mean justice was served. Bankman-Fried’s path to victory The onetime FTX CEO’s team has to demonstrate at the least that the district court made a mistake in overseeing the case, Etherealize General Counsel Steve Yelderman told CoinDesk. Howard Fischer, a partner at Moses Singer, said in an interview with CoinDesk TV that the defense’s arguments are essentially “that the way in which the court conducted the trial was.