Founder of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, Drops Request for New Trial

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX, has formally withdrawn his request for a new trial, expressing doubts about receiving a fair hearing. In a letter to the presiding judge, Bankman-Fried indicated that he may revisit the motion after the outcome of his appeal and a related request for reassignment have been decided. The motion for a new trial was initially filed by his mother, Barbara Fried, who claimed that newly discovered evidence warranted a retrial. Bankman-Fried, currently serving a 25-year sentence for fraud and conspiracy related to FTX's collapse in 2022, drafted the motion himself while in detention, with limited assistance from his lawyers and family members. He clarified that although he is the primary author of the letter to the judge, he did seek input from his lawyers and family, which resulted in minor editorial and organizational changes. 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 initial trial was fundamentally unfair due to limitations on the evidence Bankman-Fried could present to the jury.