Key Takeaways
- Sam Bankman-Fried’s enchantment criticizes the choose’s conduct throughout his fraud trial.
- The enchantment argues clients could get well funds, difficult the loss narrative.
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Sam Bankman-Fried, the founding father of collapsed crypto trade FTX, has filed an enchantment difficult his fraud conviction and 25-year jail sentence, alleging judicial bias and improper limitations on his protection.
The 102-page enchantment, filed Friday by Bankman-Fried’s lawyer Alexandra A.E. Shapiro, requires a brand new trial and criticizes a number of rulings by US District Decide Lewis A. Kaplan that allegedly restricted the defendant’s capability to current proof and mount an efficient protection.
“Sam Bankman-Fried was by no means presumed harmless,” Shapiro wrote within the submitting. “He was presumed responsible by the choose who presided over his trial.”
The enchantment takes challenge with Decide Kaplan’s choice to forestall Bankman-Fried from arguing that FTX customers had not truly misplaced cash as a consequence of potential recoveries via chapter proceedings. Shapiro contends this ruling allowed prosecutors to current a “false narrative” of everlasting buyer losses to the jury.
Moreover, the enchantment criticizes Decide Kaplan for limiting Bankman-Fried’s capability to testify about counting on authorized recommendation for sure enterprise choices scrutinized by prosecutors. The submitting additionally objects to an uncommon pre-testimony deposition ordered by the choose, describing it as an “unprecedented continuing” that gave prosecutors an unfair benefit.
“The federal government thus offered a false narrative that FTX’s clients, lenders, and buyers had completely misplaced their cash,” the enchantment states. “The jury was solely allowed to see half the image.”
Bankman-Fried’s authorized crew argues that these and different rulings by Decide Kaplan created an unfair trial surroundings. The enchantment seeks not solely a brand new trial but in addition requests that it’s performed earlier than a unique choose, citing alleged bias in Kaplan’s courtroom conduct.
“The choose repeatedly made biting feedback undermining the protection,” Shapiro wrote, “Even deriding the defendant’s personal testimony in the course of the preview listening to and in entrance of the jury.”
The enchantment additionally raises issues concerning the position of legislation agency Sullivan & Cromwell, which served as FTX’s outdoors counsel earlier than turning into its main chapter lawyer. Bankman-Fried’s crew argues the agency improperly pushed for his resignation as CEO and basically acted as an extension of the federal government by offering info to prosecutors.
Bankman-Fried, 32, was convicted by a federal jury in November on prices of fraud, conspiracy, and cash laundering associated to the collapse of FTX. Prosecutors alleged he orchestrated a scheme to misappropriate $8 billion in buyer funds. Decide Kaplan sentenced him to 25 years in jail in March.
The enchantment represents a last-ditch effort by the previous crypto billionaire to overturn his conviction. Federal appeals usually face lengthy odds of success. Bankman-Fried has constantly maintained his innocence since prices had been first filed following FTX’s November 2022 implosion.
A spokesman for US Legal professional Damian Williams, whose workplace prosecuted the case, declined to touch upon the enchantment.
The primary of Bankman-Fried’s former associates who pleaded responsible and testified towards him, Caroline Ellison, is scheduled for sentencing on September 24, after interesting for a no-prison sentence. Ellison, who had an on-and-off romantic relationship with Bankman-Fried, was considered one of three prime FTX advisers to cooperate with prosecutors.
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