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

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has formally withdrawn his motion for a retrial, citing concerns that he would not receive a fair hearing. Bankman-Fried, currently serving a 25-year prison sentence for his role in FTX's 2022 collapse, indicated that he may reinstate the motion after the outcome of his direct appeal and a related request for reassignment have been decided. The initial motion for a new trial was submitted by his mother, Barbara Fried, who claimed that newly discovered evidence warranted a retrial. Bankman-Fried revealed that he had primarily drafted the motion himself while in detention, with limited input from his lawyers and family members. He stated that his lawyers and parents provided editorial suggestions and helped with printing the document, as he no longer had access to a word processor. Bankman-Fried also shared earlier drafts with a New York attorney who was initially hired to represent him in the Rule 33 motion. 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 trial was fundamentally unfair due to restrictions on the evidence Bankman-Fried could present to the jury.