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Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has officially withdrawn his motion for a retrial, expressing doubts about receiving an impartial hearing. In a letter to the presiding judge, Bankman-Fried, who is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence for his role in FTX's collapse, indicated that he might reconsider his motion after the resolution of his direct appeal and a related request for the case to be reassigned. The initial motion for a new trial was submitted by Bankman-Fried's mother, Barbara Fried, who claimed that newly discovered evidence warranted a retrial. Bankman-Fried revealed that he had largely drafted the motion himself while in detention, with some assistance from his lawyers and family members. He stated 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-based attorney who was initially hired to represent him in the motion. 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.