By KEILE CAMPBELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kcampbell@tribunemedia.net

US FEDERAL appeals court judges reportedly appeared unconvinced yesterday by arguments from lawyers for former crypto tycoon Sam Bankman-Fried who are seeking to overturn his fraud conviction and secure a new trial on grounds that his initial proceedings were “fundamentally unfair.”

Alexandria Shapiro, defending the 33-year-old – extradited from The Bahamas – argued that trial judge Lewis Kaplan unfairly limited what her client could testify about, tilting the trial in favour of prosecutors and allowing them to present what she described as a “morally compelling tale” without giving the defence a fair chance to counter it.

She told the three-judge panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals that the ruling left the defence “cut off at the knees,” adding that prosecutors’ claims that FTX customers and lenders lost billions were misleading. Ms Shapiro told the court that nearly all FTX creditors had since received 120 percent of their investments plus interest, and that $8bn had already been repaid, with another $1bn in legal fees and an additional $8bn remaining to cover $2bn in claims.

Bankman-Fried’s legal team contended that the verdict was unjust because key evidence supporting his claim that FTX had enough funds to cover customer withdrawals was excluded.

The judges, however, pushed back on the appeal. One noted there was “very substantial evidence of guilt” based on the trial record, while Judge Barrington Parker questioned whether the jury would have reached a different verdict even if Bankman-Fried had been allowed to testify about his lawyers’ involvement in drafting certain documents.

According to US media reports, members of Bankman-Fried’s inner circle have lobbied President Donald Trump for a pardon, though it is unclear whether the president is considering the request. Last month, President Trump pardoned Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, founder of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, who pleaded guilty in 2023 to violating anti-money laundering regulations and other offences.

Bankman-Fried was once celebrated as a billionaire cryptocurrency mogul and founder of the exchange FTX and its trading arm Alameda Research. His reputation collapsed when it was revealed that he had misused billions of dollars in customer deposits to cover losses at Alameda, fund political donations, and finance personal and corporate spending. In March 2024, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and ordered to forfeit $11 billion after being found guilty on seven charges, including wire fraud, securities fraud, commodities fraud, and money laundering. Prosecutors said he defrauded FTX investors of more than $1.7 billion and lenders to Alameda of more than $1.3 billion, describing his actions as one of the largest financial frauds in US history. US District Judge Lewis A Kaplan, who presided over the one-month trial, said Bankman-Fried’s conduct showed exceptional greed and a disregard for the truth.