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

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has officially withdrawn his request for a new trial, citing doubts about receiving a fair hearing.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 renew the motion after the resolution of his direct appeal and a related request for reassignment. Currently serving a 25-year sentence for his conviction on multiple counts of fraud and conspiracy related to FTX's collapse in 2022, Bankman-Fried had initially filed the motion for a new trial through his mother, Barbara Fried, who claimed that newly discovered evidence would warrant a retrial. Bankman-Fried revealed that he had personally drafted the motion while in detention at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, with minimal assistance. Although he sought input from his lawyers and family members, he maintained that he was the primary author of the letter to the judge. The appeal is presently before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, where his lawyer, Alexandra Shapiro, argued during November's oral arguments that the trial was inherently unfair, particularly due to the limitations imposed on the evidence Bankman-Fried could present to the jury.