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

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has retracted his request for a new trial, 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 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 through his mother, Barbara Fried, who claimed that newly discovered evidence warranted a retrial. Bankman-Fried drafted the motion himself while in detention at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, with minimal assistance. Although he consulted with his lawyers and family, he maintained that he was the primary author of the letter to the judge. The motion for a new trial, filed under Rule 33, is a formal request to a federal court for a retrial based on new evidence or in the interest of justice. Bankman-Fried's 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.