Bankman-Fried's Appeal Against FTX Conviction Rejected by US Court

Sam Bankman-Fried's bid to appeal against his fraud conviction and 25-year prison sentence for the collapse of FTX has been rejected. The decision was made by a three-judge panel of the New York-based second US circuit court of appeals.

Bankman-Fried, a former cryptocurrency sector influencer and multibillionaire before FTX's downfall in 2022, was found guilty on seven felony charges by a federal jury in Manhattan in 2023. Prosecutors said he stole $8bn from FTX customers, describing it as a 'fraud of epic proportions'.

Bankman-Fried had pleaded not guilty to the two counts of fraud and five counts of conspiracy. At his trial, he admitted to making mistakes running FTX but testified that he never stole funds. His defense argued that US district judge Lewis Kaplan improperly prevented Bankman-Fried from introducing evidence to support his claim that FTX had enough funds to cover customer withdrawals.

Prosecutors countered with testimony from three of Bankman-Fried's former deputies, who pleaded guilty and cooperated with prosecutors. They testified that he directed them to raid FTX customer funds to plug losses at Alameda Research, his crypto-focused hedge fund.