 
 
Lawyers representing Sam Bankman-Fried, the convicted founder and former CEO of collapsed crypto exchange FTX, are back in the appellate court in an effort to reverse his guilty conviction and 25-year prison sentence two years after a jury in Manhattan unanimously found him guilty on multiple conspiracy and fraud charges.
SBF Wants A New Trial
Bankman-Fried first lodged an appeal in September 2024 and requested a fresh trial. At the time, his legal team lambasted New York District Judge Lewis Kaplan’s handling of the case and claimed that Bankman-Fried was “never presumed innocent.”
“The defense was cut off at the knees by the judge’s rulings,” SBF’s lawyer Alexandra Shapiro said at the hearing at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York.
Prosecutors claimed Bankman-Fried siphoned billions of dollars from FTX customers to the exchange’s sister hedge fund, Alameda Research, using the funds for speculative investments, political donations, and luxurious real estate. They argued that the one-time FTX CEO orchestrated “likely the largest fraud in the last decade,” likening it to the Ponzi scheme mastermind Bernie Madoff.
SBF’s case drew attention from many in the crypto industry and lawmakers as well, since SBF had contributed millions of dollars to politicians via his companies. The appellate court will decide whether to give Bankman-Fried a new trial with a new judge or uphold his conviction in New York.
 
Probability Of A Pardon
In case the appeal is unsuccessful, SBF and his team still seem to be exploring ways to win a pardon from U.S. President Donald Trump, with a March jailhouse interview with Tucker Carlson and a slew of posts on X shared by the account of the former FTX CEO.
As ZyCrypto reported recently, his X account shared a document entitled “Where Did the Money Go,” contending that “FTX was never insolvent.”
President Trump has commuted the sentences of a number of crypto figures who support him or who have business relationships with his family members. Back in January, he pardoned Silk Road founder and Bitcoin icon Ross Ulbricht, who had been sentenced to life in prison. Then, in March, he pardoned Arthur Hayes and his BitMEX co-founders.
Most recently, the president pardoned Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, who served a four-month prison sentence after pleading guilty to violating the US Bank Secrecy Act. The move stoked speculation among some crypto spectators that Bankman-Fried could be pardoned next. However, the White House had not announced any pardon as of press time.