Sam Bankman-Fried Drops Retrial Bid, Citing Concerns Over Fair Trial

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has formally withdrawn his motion for a retrial, citing doubts about receiving a fair hearing. In a letter to the presiding judge, Bankman-Fried expressed his intention to potentially renew the motion after the outcome of his direct appeal and a related request for reassignment have been determined. The initial motion for a new trial was submitted by his mother, Barbara Fried, who claimed that newly discovered evidence would warrant a retrial. Bankman-Fried, currently serving a 25-year sentence for fraud and conspiracy related to FTX's collapse in 2022, acknowledged drafting the motion himself while in detention, with limited input from his lawyers and family members. He clarified that although he sought editorial suggestions from his lawyers and parents, the ultimate motion was his own work. The appeal is currently pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, where his attorney, Alexandra Shapiro, argued during oral arguments in November that the trial was fundamentally unfair due to restrictions on the evidence Bankman-Fried could present to the jury.