Sam Bankman-Fried Drops Retrial Request, Citing Concerns Over Fairness

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has officially withdrawn his motion for a new trial, expressing doubts about receiving a fair hearing. Bankman-Fried, who is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence for multiple counts of fraud and conspiracy related to FTX's collapse in 2022, indicated that he might revive the motion after the resolution of his direct appeal and a related request for the reassignment of his case. The motion for a retrial was initially filed by his mother, Barbara Fried, citing newly discovered evidence that could warrant a retrial. Bankman-Fried revealed that he had personally drafted the motion while in detention at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, with limited input from his lawyers and family members. He clarified that although his lawyers and parents provided some editorial suggestions, he was the primary author of the letter to the judge. Bankman-Fried's appeal is currently pending before the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, where his lawyer, 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.