FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried filed an appeal Friday afternoon to overturn his fraud and conspiracy conviction.
His attorneys argue in the 102-page filing that presiding Judge Lewis Kaplan’s rulings prevented Bankman-Fried from contributing to his defense and deprived him of a fair trial.
“Fair trial principles were swept away in a ‘Sentence first-verdict afterwards’ tsunami, as everyone rushed to judgment following FTX’s collapse,” Alexandra Shapiro, who joined Bankman-Fried’s defense team after his conviction, wrote. “Sam Bankman-Fried was never presumed innocent. He was presumed guilty — before he was even charged.”
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Because the court ruled that Bankman-Fried’s intent to steal the funds was “immaterial,” Shapiro added, the defense was unable to present “evidence that FTX and Alameda” were “solvent.”
“But whether evidence was ‘material’ apparently depended on who was offering it, because the district court simultaneously allowed the government to offer evidence of loss,” Shapiro wrote. “The government thus presented a false narrative that FTX’s customers, lenders, and investors had permanently lost their money.”
These limitations on evidence resulted in the jury only seeing “half the picture,” Shapiro added.
Bankman-Fried, who was convicted last fall for his role in FTX’s collapse, is currently serving a 25-year sentence in prison. He initially indicated his intention to appeal the conviction in April.
The filing comes as Bankman-Fried’s former romantic and business partner Caroline Ellison — who testified as a government witness during the trial last fall — is scheduled to be sentenced this month.
Ellison’s attorneys this week asked the court for no prison time, citing her “extraordinary cooperation” with prosecutors during and ahead of Bankman-Fried’s trial. Ellison’s role in the crimes was a result of her “warped” moral sense due to Bankman-Fried’s influence.
“Bankman-Fried convinced her to stay, telling her she was essential to the survival of the business, and that he loved her,” her attorneys wrote in their sentencing memo.
At the same time, the memo adds, Bankman-Fried was “perversely demonstrating that he considered her not good enough to be seen in public with him at high-profile events.”
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