Sam Bankman-Fried Appeals Conviction, Says Trial Was Unfair and Biased

On September 13, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) filed an charm to overturn his closing November conviction on fraud and conspiracy charges.

In a 102-page submitting, SBF’s steady team argued the trial became once unfair, calling it a “sentence first, verdict in a while” grief. They claimed the judgment became once rushed and biased.

SBF’s Lawful Team Claims He Turned into once Presumed Guilty From the Outset

Led by felony expert Alexandra Shapiro, SBF’s attorneys said that he became once never presumed innocent. They argued that each person eager, including the need, assumed his guilt from the launch.

“Sam Bankman-Fried became once never presumed innocent. He became once presumed guilty — sooner than he became once even charged. He became once presumed guilty by the media. He became once presumed guilty by the FTX debtor property and its attorneys. He became once presumed guilty by federal prosecutors fervent for swiftly headlines. And he became once presumed guilty by the need who presided over his trial,” the attorneys lamented.

Read extra: FTX Crumple Outlined: How Sam Bankman-Fried’s Empire Fell

The protection accused US District Decide Lewis Kaplan of bias, alleging he influenced the trial’s result. Shapiro contended that Kaplan’s remarks at some stage within the trial recommended guilt sooner than the case had concluded. The protection additionally criticized the need for restricting key arguments that could need demonstrated SBF’s attempts to stabilize FTX.

“A lot of the need’s rulings had been no longer steady wrong but unbalanced — again and again placing a thumb on the scale to motivate the executive and thwart the protection. Nonetheless that’s no longer all. The desire repeatedly ridiculed Bankman-Fried at some stage in trial, again and again criticized his demeanor, and signaled his disbelief of Bankman-Fried’s testimony,” the attorneys wrote.

SBF’s steady team additional argued that the jury saw easiest “half the image” regarding FTX particular person funds. They claimed the prosecution misrepresented the case by portraying the funds as completely lost, whereas SBF allegedly introduced about the loss intentionally.

“From day one, the current memoir — first and important spun by the attorneys who took over FTX, snappy adopted by their contacts at the US Authorized expert’s Location of job — became once that Bankman-Fried had stolen billions of dollars of purchaser funds, pushed FTX to insolvency, and introduced about billions in losses. Now, nearly two years later, a very diversified image is rising — one confirming FTX became once never bancrupt, and if fact be told had sources worth billions to repay its possibilities. Nonetheless the jury at Bankman Fried’s trial never got to glimpse that image,” the attorneys said.

Bankman-Fried’s attorneys additionally raised considerations about Sullivan & Cromwell’s role within the case. In step with them, the rules firm — which first and important served as FTX’s external steady counsel and later became its lead financial extinguish firm — wrongly pressured SBF to step down as CEO. The attorneys additionally argued that the rules firm aimed to build stout blame on Bankman-Fried to divert consideration from its personal questionable practices.

“Sullivan & Cromwell — which billed a lot of of tens of millions of dollars on this case — performed prosecutorial projects that had nothing to carry out with financial extinguish. Moreover, the Debtors and S&C had been motivated to build all blame squarely on Bankman-Fried — to steer move of scrutiny of their personal alternate choices, their personal conflicts of passion, their personal exorbitant billing, and their personal misconduct,” SBF attorneys claimed.

Angry by all of those causes, the protection is inquiring for a new trial with a diversified, impartial desire.

Read extra: Who Is John J. Ray III, FTX’s Fresh CEO?

Closing year, Bankman-Fried became once convicted on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy. He got a 25-year detention middle sentence and became once ordered to forfeit $11 billion for his role in defrauding FTX possibilities, merchants, and Alameda Be taught lenders.