FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has filed an appeal against his federal fraud conviction, nearly a year after being sentenced to 25 years in prison. His lawyers argued in a brief submitted on Friday that Bankman-Fried was denied a fair trial and requested a new trial under a different judge.
“He was presumed guilty before he was even charged,” the brief stated, adding that a new perspective is emerging, which they claim shows that FTX was not insolvent and had billions in assets to repay customers.
The appeal centers on allegations that the trial’s presiding judge, Lewis Kaplan, compromised fairness by undermining the defense and restricting evidence that would have demonstrated the financial solvency of FTX. Bankman-Fried’s legal team further claimed that while the court allowed prosecutors to present evidence of customer losses, it barred the defense from showing FTX’s assets.
In addition to Bankman-Fried’s appeal, lawyers for his former girlfriend, Caroline Ellison, have requested that she receive leniency for her cooperation in the trial, during which she testified against him.
