Sam Bankman-Fried Drops Request for Retrial Amid Concerns Over Fairness

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has rescinded his request for a retrial due to concerns that he would not receive a fair hearing.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. Currently serving a 25-year sentence for his role in FTX's 2022 collapse, Bankman-Fried had initially filed the motion for a new trial through his mother, Barbara Fried, citing the emergence of new evidence. Although he drafted the motion himself while in detention, Bankman-Fried did consult with his lawyers and family members, who provided editorial and organizational suggestions. The appeal is presently before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, where his lawyer, Alexandra Shapiro, argued that the original trial was fundamentally unfair, citing restrictions on the evidence Bankman-Fried could present to the jury.