Sam Bankman-Fried Drops Request for New Trial, Citing Concerns Over Fairness

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has rescinded his request for a new trial, citing doubts about receiving a fair hearing. In a letter to the presiding judge, Bankman-Fried expressed his intention to potentially refile the motion after the resolution of his direct appeal and a related request for reassignment. Currently serving a 25-year sentence for fraud and conspiracy convictions related to FTX's collapse in 2022, Bankman-Fried initially filed the motion for a new trial through his mother, Barbara Fried, who claimed that newly discovered evidence warranted a retrial. Bankman-Fried drafted the motion himself while in detention at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, with minimal assistance. Although he sought input from his lawyers and family, he maintained that he was the primary author of the letter to the judge. 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 inherently unfair due to limitations on the evidence Bankman-Fried could present to the jury.