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

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has officially withdrawn his motion for a retrial, citing concerns that he would not receive a fair hearing. Bankman-Fried, who is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence for his role in the company's 2022 collapse, had initially filed the motion through his mother, Barbara Fried, who claimed that new evidence had come to light that would warrant a new trial. However, in a letter to the presiding judge, Bankman-Fried stated that he may revisit the motion after the outcome of his direct appeal and a related request for reassignment have been decided. The motion for a new trial was largely drafted by Bankman-Fried himself while he was being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, with some input from his lawyers and family members. Bankman-Fried's appeal is currently pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, where his attorney, Alexandra Shapiro, has argued that the original trial was unfair due to restrictions on the evidence that Bankman-Fried was allowed to present to the jury.