Bankman-Fried loses bid to overturn crypto fraud ruling
Sam Bankman-Fried has lost his bid to overturn his fraud conviction and 25-year prison sentence over the collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange he founded.
The decision was made by a three-judge panel of the Manhattan-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
“The government’s evidence against him was conservatively worded and solid,” the justices wrote in their 42-page opinion.
Lawyers for Bankman-Fried did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bankman-Fried, a multi-billionaire and one of the most influential figures in the cryptocurrency industry before FTX’s spectacular collapse in 2022, was found guilty of seven felonies by a federal jury in Manhattan in 2023.
Prosecutors with the Manhattan US Attorney’s Office said he stole US$8 billion ($11 billion) from FTX customers in what they called a “fraud of epic proportions”.
Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to two counts of fraud and five counts of conspiracy.
At his trial, he admitted to making mistakes running FTX but testified that he never stole money.
In appealing the conviction, Bankman-Fried’s defense attorneys argued that U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who oversaw the trial, improperly prevented Bankman-Fried from presenting evidence to support his belief that FTX had sufficient funds to cover customer withdrawals.
Prosecutors countered that the evidence at trial, including testimony from three of Bankman-Fried’s former aides, overwhelmingly proved his guilt.
The former employees, who pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, testified that Bankman-Fried directed them to raid FTX client funds to cover losses at his crypto-focused hedge fund Alameda Research.
Kaplan said at his sentencing hearing in March 2024 that Bankman-Fried knew his actions were wrong but “made a very bad bet on the possibility of being caught.”
Bankman-Fried is being held at a low-security federal prison near Santa Barbara, California.
It is eligible for release in 2044.
Bankman-Fried was a rising star in the struggling crypto industry who burnished his reputation with generous philanthropy and political donations.
