{"id":56756,"date":"2025-11-05T07:01:31","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T07:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=56756"},"modified":"2025-11-05T07:01:31","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T07:01:31","slug":"sbf-seeks-new-trial-lawyers-argue-ftxs-founder-was-blocked-from-fair-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=56756","title":{"rendered":"SBF Seeks New Trial: Lawyers Argue FTX\u2019s Founder Was \u2018Blocked\u2019 From Fair Defense"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Ahead of his Tuesday appeal hearing, Sam Bankman-Fried\u2019s lawyers have claimed that the FTX co-founder was unfairly convicted and was not allowed to tell his full story during his 2023 trial.<\/p>\n

FTX Founder Claims Unfair Trial<\/h2>\n

On Tuesday, the legal team of FTX\u2019s co-founder and former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), is set to appeal his fraud conviction and 25-year sentence in a hearing at the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York.<\/p>\n

According to a Bloomberg report<\/a>, SBF\u2019s lawyers have claimed in a previously filed brief that the crypto-exchange founder was wrongly convicted and was never given a fair chance to present his defense due to pressure from the media and prosecutors. \u201cSam Bankman-Fried was never presumed innocent,\u201d his lawyers reportedly argued in the brief. \u201cHe was presumed guilty \u2014 before he was even charged.\u201d<\/p>\n

In November 2023, Bankman-Fried was found guilty of seven criminal counts, including fraud and conspiracy. He was later sentenced to 25 years in prison and ordered to pay back $11 billion to FTX customers.<\/p>\n

His legal team, led by Alexandra Shapiro, is allegedly focusing on New York Judge Lewis Kaplan, whom they have accused of \u201crepeatedly putting a thumb on the scale to help the government and thwart the defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former crypto executive\u2019s lawyers argued in the appeal brief that the judge had \u201cpressed jurors into a quick verdict,\u201d and \u201ccontinually ridiculed Bankman-Fried, criticized his demeanor, and signaled his disbelief of Bankman-Fried\u2019s testimony.\u201d<\/p>\n

They highlighted an instance when Judge Kaplan allegedly called SBF\u2019s testimony<\/a> that he did not run FTX\u2019s sister hedge fund, Alameda Research, after stepping down as CEO, \u201ca joke.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a result, Shapiro is expected to argue that the New York judge \u201cwrongly blocked Bankman-Fried from telling the jury that FTX had enough assets to repay exchange customers.\u201d Meanwhile, prosecutors were allowed to claim SBF had stolen billions of dollars from customers, which \u201cforced\u201d FTX into bankruptcy.<\/p>\n

Since the trial, the disgraced crypto exchange\u2019s co-founder has maintained that the company was never insolvent. As reported<\/a> by Bitcoinist, Bankman-Fried recently shared a document arguing that \u201cthe crisis FTX faced in November 2022 was a liquidity crisis, i.e., a sudden shortage of cash,\u201d affirming that the company \u201cwas never bankrupt.\u201d<\/p>\n

His team is also expected to claim that Bankman-Fried didn\u2019t intend to defraud customers, that prosecutors were given an unfair advantage, and that Judge Kaplan should have allowed him to testify that he had followed FTX lawyers \u201cin good faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Trial Or Presidential Pardon?<\/h2>\n

Bankman-Fried\u2019s appeal has requested a new trial with a different judge. Nonetheless, the former CEO has also been seeking a pardon from US President Donald Trump as part of his attempts for an early release.<\/p>\n

After January\u2019s pardon of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, SBF\u2019s parents have reportedly been exploring paths to secure a presidential pardon for their son. In a February interview<\/a>, he slammed the Biden Administration, arguing that his conviction was part of the previous government\u2019s crackdown on the industry. He also shared his hope that President Trump would grant him a pardon.<\/p>\n

Notably, on October 23, the White House announced that Trump had pardoned Binance co-founder Changpeng \u201cCZ\u201d Zhao, two years after pleading guilty. The White House\u2019s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, affirmed that the US President had \u201cexercised his constitutional authority by issuing a pardon for Mr. Zhao, who was prosecuted by the Biden Administration in their war on cryptocurrency.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since then, speculation about a potential<\/a> pardon to Bankman-Fried has increased, with the odds on betting markets such as Polymarket spiking to 15% after Zhao\u2019s pardon. However, many industry players believe that the real chances of a pardon are low.<\/p>\n

Lawyer and CLO at Variant, Jake Chervinsky, previously affirmed<\/a> that he would be \u201ctruly shocked if SBF gets a pardon,\u201d as SBF and CZ are \u201cnot comparable at all.\u201d Chervinsky noted that \u201cSBF was a Democratic mega-donor before FTX collapsed and he went to prison bankrupt. His name is half punch line half curse word in DC. Not a single serious person wants this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FTX,<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ahead of his Tuesday appeal hearing, Sam Bankman-Fried\u2019s lawyers have claimed that the FTX co-founder was unfairly convicted and was not allowed to tell his full story during his 2023 trial. FTX Founder Claims Unfair Trial On Tuesday, the legal team of FTX\u2019s co-founder and former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), is set to appeal his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,4,5],"class_list":["post-56756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crypto","tag-doge","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56756\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}