Sam Bankman-Fried has asked the U.S. Supreme Court for a new trial, escalating his challenge to the seven-count fraud conviction that resulted in a 25-year federal prison sentence. He also wants the justices to overturn the $11.02 billion forfeiture imposed as part of the criminal judgment.
A Manhattan jury convicted the former FTX chief executive in November 2023 of two counts of wire fraud, two wire-fraud conspiracies and conspiracies involving securities fraud, commodities fraud and money laundering. Bankman-Fried later received a 25-year sentence after prosecutors proved that billions of dollars in FTX customer funds were diverted to Alameda Research and used for investments, loan repayments, political contributions and personal spending.
Bankman-Fried’s Supreme Court challenge again targets restrictions Judge Lewis Kaplan placed on evidence concerning his intention to repay customers and the eventual value of investments made with FTX funds. His lawyers argue the defense should have been allowed to counter claims of customer losses with evidence that assets remained available and later generated enough value to support creditor recoveries.
The Second Circuit rejected that argument when it left his conviction and sentence intact on June 12. The court held that customers were defrauded once their money was transferred to Alameda through false representations, regardless of whether Bankman-Fried believed the funds could eventually be returned. It also upheld the exclusion of evidence about the later value of his investments because subsequent appreciation did not determine whether the original transfers constituted fraud.
FTX’s bankruptcy estate has meanwhile returned billions of dollars through its creditor program, including another distribution round that began July 31. Those recoveries give Bankman-Fried’s lawyers a factual basis for arguing that customers ultimately received substantial value, but they do not alter the Second Circuit’s ruling on when the underlying fraud was completed.
Bankman-Fried is separately attacking the $11.02 billion forfeiture under the Eighth Amendment’s Excessive Fines Clause. He argues that the judgment is disproportionate, particularly because many FTX victims are being repaid and because he is unlikely ever to satisfy the full amount.
The Second Circuit rejected both the forfeiture calculation challenge and the constitutional argument. The court found that Bankman-Fried had not established the direct costs needed to reduce the calculation and held that an inability to satisfy the judgment did not by itself make the penalty grossly disproportionate.
The justices are not required to hear the case. Bankman-Fried is asking the Supreme Court to review evidentiary rules governing fraud prosecutions and the scope of his forfeiture after the Second Circuit described the trial evidence against him as “robust” and affirmed the district court judgment in full.
His seven convictions, 25-year prison sentence and $11.02 billion forfeiture remain in force while the Supreme Court considers whether to take the case.
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