Topline<\/p>\n
Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX and a former billionaire, lost his appeal to overturn his conviction for fraud and 25-year sentence on Friday, as an appeals court rejected his claim the trial was unfair.<\/p>\n
Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the failed FTX cryptocurrency exchange, lost his appeal of his fraud conviction Friday. (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY \/ AFP) (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
AFP via Getty ImagesKey Facts<\/p>\n
A three-judge panel in a Manhattan federal appeals court upheld Bankman-Fried\u2019s conviction and sentence Friday, saying in a 42-page ruling Bankman-Fried was the \u201cmain driver of one of the largest frauds on record.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bankman-Fried, whose cryptocurrency exchange FTX collapsed in spectacular fashion in 2022, was sentenced<\/a> to 25 years in prison in 2024 after he was found guilty on seven counts, including two counts of wire fraud, and additional counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering and securities fraud.<\/p>\n The appeals court rejected Bankman-Fried\u2019s claim that his trial was \u201cfundamentally unfair\u201d and that the judge was biased<\/a> against him, saying in the ruling the \u201cgovernment\u2019s evidence against him was, conservatively stated, robust.\u201d<\/p>\n Bankman-Fried\u2019s lawyers previously argued<\/a> before the appeals court that federal judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who presided over his trial, improperly limited Bankman-Fried\u2019s testimony, though the appeals court said Friday the judge \u201cacted within his broad discretion\u201d by concluding additional testimony would have \u201ccreated a real danger of confusing, if not misleading, the jury.\u201d<\/p>\n Bankman-Fried may still try to appeal his conviction to the appeals court\u2019s full panel of judges or to the Supreme Court. <\/p>\n surprising fact<\/p>\n Bankman-Fried applied for a pardon<\/a> from President Donald Trump earlier this week. Online records of the Justice Department\u2019s Office of the Pardon Attorney show that Bankman-Fried\u2019s request for a \u201cpardon after completion of sentence\u201d is \u201cpending.\u201d In an interview with Fox Business<\/a> from his prison cell earlier this week, Bankman-Fried said he \u201cabsolutely\u201d wants a pardon, though he acknowledged it is \u201cultimately up to the president, not up to me.\u201d Though Trump has pardoned multiple white-collar criminals in his second term, including online black market Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht and Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, he said<\/a> in January he has no intention of pardoning Bankman-Fried. <\/p>\n forbes valuation<\/p>\n Bankman-Fried\u2019s net worth is $0 following the collapse of FTX and his criminal convictions, according to Forbes estimates, but he was once worth<\/a> as much as $26.5 billion before his company came crashing down. <\/p>\n key background<\/p>\n Bankman-Fried, once described<\/a> by Forbes as the \u201cmulti-billionaire poster boy of crypto,\u201d founded FTX in 2019 and became one of the richest people in the burgeoning cryptocurrency industry. At the height of his wealth, Bankman-Fried secured a Super Bowl<\/a> ad for FTX that starred comedian Larry David, acquired the rights to rename the home of the Miami Heat to FTX Arena (which was removed following the company\u2019s bankruptcy) and became a major political donor to Democratic candidates and causes, contributing the second-most<\/a> of any individual to former President Joe Biden\u2019s 2020 bid. But in November 2022, the company collapsed in a matter of days as a CoinDesk<\/a> report found Alameda Research, a crypto company with close ties to FTX, had a significant number of FTX tokens on its balance sheet, while Forbes<\/a> reported FTX and Alameda had been losing billions between 2021 and 2022. Investors pulled funds from FTX, including Binance, which backed out of a deal to buy FTX. Prosecutors<\/a> later accused Bankman-Fried of \u201cstealing over $8 billion of his customers\u2019 money\u201d and using those funds to \u201cexpand his own power and influence.\u201d<\/p>\n further reading<\/p>\n