Sam Bankman-Fried, who established the now-defunct cryptocurrency platform FTX, has formally requested that the United States Supreme Court reverse his criminal conviction and nullify an $11 billion forfeiture judgment.
BREAKING: Sam Bankman-Fried is taking his $8 BILLION fraud case to the US Supreme Court.
He filed the petition today in a last-ditch attempt to overturn his 25-year sentence, per Bloomberg Law.
A federal appeals court unanimously upheld the conviction in June, calling the… pic.twitter.com/o5znzihlU1
— Coin Bureau (@coinbureau) September 10, 2026
The disgraced crypto entrepreneur is presently behind bars fulfilling a 25-year sentence. In 2023, a federal jury found him guilty on all seven criminal counts, including wire fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud, and laundering illicit proceeds. Federal prosecutors demonstrated he transferred billions in client deposits from FTX to Alameda Research, his proprietary trading firm.
According to the government’s case, these misappropriated funds financed speculative trading positions, political campaign contributions, and lavish personal expenditures.
Bankman-Fried’s appellate counsel maintains the trial judge committed a critical procedural mistake. The defense claims they were improperly prevented from introducing evidence demonstrating that both FTX and Alameda maintained adequate holdings to satisfy all customer obligations, despite temporary liquidity constraints that prevented immediate withdrawals.
His attorneys emphasize that FTX’s bankruptcy estate has successfully repaid all customers completely, including accrued interest. They contend the prosecution created an unfair advantage by highlighting supposed victim losses while the defense was simultaneously barred from countering with evidence that no permanent financial harm occurred.
Jeffrey Fisher, a veteran Supreme Court litigator now representing Bankman-Fried, argues that in fraud prosecutions where financial loss need not be established as an element, permitting loss-related evidence becomes “distracting and prejudicial” to defendants.
The petition additionally contests the forfeiture order’s constitutionality, asserting that seizing $11 billion constitutes a punishment so disproportionate it breaches the 8th Amendment’s safeguards against excessive penalties.
This appeal builds substantially upon Kousisis v. United States, a 2025 Supreme Court precedent. That unanimous decision established that federal wire fraud statutes do not mandate proof of actual economic injury to victims for conviction.
The Second Circuit relied on this precedent when it affirmed Bankman-Fried’s conviction in its ruling issued earlier this year.
However, the current petition presents a more refined legal question. If proving actual monetary loss is unnecessary to obtain a fraud conviction under federal law, what justification exists for permitting prosecutors to present evidence implying victims suffered financial harm?
Bankman-Fried’s appellate team contends that fundamental fairness requires symmetry: if the government introduces such prejudicial evidence, the defense must retain the right to rebut it with countervailing proof.
A decision on whether the Supreme Court will grant certiorari and hear oral arguments is expected sometime in the latter half of this year. Should the justices accept the case, it could establish important precedent regarding evidentiary standards in federal fraud prosecutions.
The former billionaire received his sentence in March 2024. He remains incarcerated at a federal correctional institution as his legal challenges progress through the appellate system.
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