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

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has formally withdrawn his motion for a retrial, citing doubts about receiving a fair hearing. In a letter to the presiding judge, Bankman-Fried expressed his intention to potentially refile the motion after his appeal and a related request for reassignment have been decided. Currently serving a 25-year sentence for fraud and conspiracy related to FTX's collapse in 2022, Bankman-Fried had initially filed the motion through his mother, Barbara Fried, who claimed that newly discovered evidence warranted a retrial. Bankman-Fried drafted the motion himself while in detention, with limited assistance from his lawyers and family members, who provided editorial suggestions and helped with printing the document. His appeal is currently pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, where his lawyer, Alexandra Shapiro, argued during oral arguments that the trial was fundamentally unfair due to restrictions on the evidence Bankman-Fried could present to the jury.