Sam Bankman-Fried Drops Retrial Bid, Citing Fairness Concerns

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has formally withdrawn his request for a retrial, citing doubts about receiving a fair hearing.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. Currently serving a 25-year sentence for multiple counts of fraud and conspiracy related to FTX's collapse in 2022, Bankman-Fried initially filed the motion for a new trial, which was largely drafted by himself while in detention. The motion claimed that newly discovered evidence would warrant a retrial. Although Bankman-Fried sought input from his lawyers and family members, including his mother Barbara Fried, who initially filed the motion, he maintained that he was the primary author of the letter to the judge. His lawyers and family provided editorial suggestions and helped with the printing of the motion, as Bankman-Fried no longer had access to a word processor. 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.