FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried appeal heard in New York
Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, arrives in court at a New York courthouse on Aug. 11, 2023, as lawyers try to persuade the judge overseeing his fraud case not to jail him ahead of trial.
Eduardo Muñoz | Reuters
Judges in a federal appeals court in New York on Tuesday cast skepticism on arguments by Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyer that his conviction for multibillion-dollar fraud involving cryptocurrency exchange FTX and a related hedge fund should be overturned.
Bankman-Fried’s attorney, Alexandra Shapiro, was interrupted almost immediately and then repeatedly by the three-judge panel at the hearing. 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals While trying to argue that SBF deserved a new trial because the first one was “fundamentally unfair.”
“From my reading of the records, [there was] “It’s very important evidence of guilt,” Judge Barringon Parker told Shapiro.
“Are you seriously telling us that if your client had been able to testify about the role the lawyers played in the preparation of these various documents, not guilty verdicts would have been entered?” Parker asked as Bankman-Fried’s parents looked on from the courtroom gallery.
Bankman-Fried, 33, was convicted in November 2023 on seven counts of fraud against FTX clients and lenders to hedge fund Alameda Research. He is serving a 25-year prison sentence.
Defense attorney Alexandra Shapiro makes oral argument before U.S. District Judges Barington D. Parker Jr., Eunice C. Lee and Maria Araujo Kahn of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit during former cryptocurrency executive Sam Bankman-Fried’s appeal of his fraud conviction on November 4, 2025 in New York City, United States.
Jane Rosenberg | Reuters
Shapiro argued that trial judge Lewis Kaplan’s decisions, which included limiting what SBF could testify to, unfairly favored prosecutors.
This “allowed the prosecution to present this morally compelling story, but prevented the defense from showing that the story was not true,” he said.
“The defense was brought to its knees because of the judge’s decisions,” Shapiro told the panel.
He said prosecutors were allowed to make false claims at trial that customers and lenders had lost billions of dollars and would never get that money back.
In fact, he said, it was his understanding that 98 percent of all FTX creditors received 120 percent of their investments, plus interest, and that the FTX estate had already paid $8 billion to creditors, plus $1 billion in attorney fees. He added that there is another $8 billion left to cover the remaining $2 billion in receivables.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Thane Rehn spent much of his time during the hearing answering the judge’s questions about how the $11 billion fine against SBF was structured and what would happen to that sentencing order if all victims were made whole before the full amount was spent.
