Sam Bankman-Fried Drops Retrial Request, Citing Unfair Trial Concerns

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has formally withdrawn his request for a new trial, citing concerns that he would not receive a fair hearing.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. Bankman-Fried, currently serving a 25-year prison term following his conviction on multiple counts of fraud and conspiracy related to FTX's collapse in 2022, had initially filed the motion for a new trial through his mother, Barbara Fried, who claimed that newly discovered evidence warranted a retrial. While Bankman-Fried drafted the motion himself with limited assistance during his detention at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, he did consult with his lawyers and family members, incorporating some of their suggestions into the final draft. A Rule 33 motion, which is a formal request for a new trial based on new evidence or in the interest of justice, is currently pending. Bankman-Fried's appeal is now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, where his attorney, Alexandra Shapiro, argued during oral arguments in November that the original trial was fundamentally unfair due to restrictions on the evidence Bankman-Fried could present to the jury.