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

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has formally withdrawn his application for a retrial, citing doubts about receiving an impartial hearing.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. The motion for a new trial, initially filed by his mother, Barbara Fried, was based on the emergence of new evidence that could warrant a retrial. Bankman-Fried, currently serving a 25-year prison sentence, claimed to have drafted the motion himself while in detention, with minimal assistance from his lawyers and family members. He acknowledged that his lawyers and parents provided editorial suggestions and helped with printing the document, as he no longer had access to a word processor. Bankman-Fried also shared earlier drafts with a New York attorney who was initially hired to represent him but ultimately decided to represent himself. 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 limitations on the evidence Bankman-Fried could present to the jury.