According to "The Block" report, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the former CEO of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has appealed and requested a new trial. His lawyers criticized New York District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan's handling of the case and said SBF should not be barred from presenting certain evidence.
"He was presumed guilty before he was even indicted. The media presumed he was guilty, and he was presumed guilty by the FTX Debtor Syndicate and its attorneys," SBF's attorneys said in the 102-page appeal. "Federal prosecutors are eager to seek headlines and are He is presumed guilty, and so is the judge presiding over the trial."
SBF was found guilty in November by a New York jury on all seven criminal counts of defrauding FTX customers, lenders and investors. Prosecutors said SBF orchestrated "perhaps the largest fraud of the past decade" and compared it to Ponzi scheme mastermind Bernie Madoff. He was subsequently sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Grounds of appeal
SBF's lawyer, Alexandra Shapiro, argued on appeal that the jury was "only allowed to see half the story" because the court ruled that whether SBF intended to steal clients' funds was not a key factor. Shapiro added that the former executive could have testified that he relied on his attorney's advice on certain business matters, but the court prevented him from testifying.
Shapiro said the court prevented SBF from presenting evidence that FTX and hedge fund Alameda were solvent. During the trial, prosecutors suggested both companies were insolvent. Shapiro said:
“In making these arguments, the government copied the FTX debtors’ representations and intentionally created the impression that any losses suffered by customers were attributable to Bankman-Fried and not due to their mismanagement of the consortium’s assets.”
Prosecutors also accuse SBF of spending billions of dollars on luxury apartments and political donations, all of which they claim are missing. Shapiro said this statement was false and "as everyone now knows, FTX customers and Alameda creditors will be repaid from the bankruptcy estate." According to reports, the FTX consortium has recovered up to $16.3 billion in assets so far.
"Bankman-Fried did not lose or steal all of his money, and the investments he made were not dangerous or stupid. Many of them, such as his $500 million investment in Anthropic and his investment in Solana, were prescient ” Shapiro added: “However, these investments are illiquid, meaning they cannot be immediately converted into cash to deal with a run caused by customer withdrawals in November 2022. FTX faces a liquidity crisis, not a repayment crisis. Capacity crisis.
Shapiro said the SBF should ultimately be allowed to rebut the prosecution's arguments, which "would have been proven at trial had the judge allowed the defense to introduce evidence," according to the appeal. "The bias resulting from the error can be summed up simply: the prosecution was An objectively wrong case is allowed to be presented and the defense is not allowed to rebut it."
Shapiro argued on appeal that Judge Kaplan made it clear during the trial that he disliked SBF and accused him of favoring the government. The lawyer also claimed the judge "improperly pushed the jury" to reach a verdict in one night, in part by offering free dinners and rides. "Judge Kaplan has expressed his conviction time and time again that Bankman-Fried is guilty," Shapiro said.
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