Sam Bankman-Fried files appeal for felony conviction
#conviction Following the collapse of crypto exchange FTX in 2022, the former CEO faced a jury trial and was convicted of seven felony counts and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
$BTC Lawyers representing former cryptocurrency exchange FTX CEO Sam âSBFâ Bankman-Fried have filed a long-anticipated appeal for his conviction on seven felony counts and his 25-year prison sentence.
#prison $ETH In a Sept. 13 filing in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, SBFâs lawyers filed a 102-page brief claiming that the former FTX CEO was ânever presumed innocent,â subject to scrutiny that allegedly affected prosecutors, the presiding judge, and treatment by the media.
Bankman-Friedâs legal team announced in April â a few weeks after a federal judge sentenced him to 25 years in prison â that they intended to appeal.
#AppealForSupport $BNB According to the appeal, SBFâs lawyers alleged the jury was âonly allowed to see half the pictureâ with FTX user funds, claiming prosecutors had âpresented a false narrativeâ that the money was permanently lost and Bankman-Fried intentionally caused that loss.
They also claimed that counsel for the FTX debtors worked with the US government in a way that was above and beyond âcooperation,â providing information allegedly as an âarm of the prosecution.â
#ProsecutionDefense âFrom day one, the prevailing narrativeâinitially spun by the lawyers who took over FTX, quickly adopted by their contacts at the US Attorneyâs Officeâ was that Bankman-Fried had stolen billions of dollars of customer funds, driven FTX to insolvency, and caused billions in losses,â said the appeal.
âNow, nearly two years later, a very different picture is emergingâone confirming FTX was never insolvent, and in fact had assets worth billions to repay its customers. But the jury at Bankman-Friedâs trial never got to see that picture.â
#PICTURE The legal team requested the appellate court grant SBF a new trial with a different judge.