FTX Founder Sam Bankman - Fried has filed a petition with the United States Supreme Court, requesting to overturn the fraud conviction that resulted in a 25-year prison sentence. Previously, in June of this year, the United States Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the original verdict, and this appeal is his latest attempt to overturn the case.
The defense argued that the client was ultimately compensated.
According to the petition document seen by The New York Times, the lawyer for SBF believes that the court of first instance should have allowed the jury to hear another key fact: the client of FTX did not suffer any ultimate financial loss. The petition states that the relevant assets were always sufficient to cover the client's repayments, and that the client has now received a refund along with interest through the bankruptcy process.
However, the prosecution does not accept this argument. During the sentencing phase, the U.S. Department of Justice pointed out that the core of the case does not depend on whether the clients later recovered their funds, but rather on whether SBF misappropriated the clients' funds. The prosecution also stated that in addition to the clients' funds, the case also involved fraud against investors of FTX and lenders of Alameda.
- FTX Investors suffered losses of approximately $1.7 billion
- Alameda Lenders suffered losses of approximately $1.3 billion
- The customer compensation is based on the US dollar-denominated claims from November 2022.
$11 billion in confiscations also challenged
This petition also challenges the confiscation penalty of approximately $1.1 billion. The defense argues that this amount constitutes an “excessive fine” and violates the restrictions on excessive fines stipulated in the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The report mentioned that the bankruptcy repayment plan for FTX calculates debts based on the dollar price in November 2022. At that time, the price of Bitcoin was around $16,000. This means that even though some customers have received repayments, the recovery of assets in this case is not the same as a subsequent increase in the market price.
Pardon application is still pending processing.
In addition to appealing to the Supreme Court, SBF is also seeking presidential pardon. He submitted a pardon request to U.S. President Donald Trump in June of this year. The U.S. Pardon Attorney's Office still lists this request as pending.
However, this path is also not optimistic. Reports mention that Trump stated in January of this year that he would not consider granting amnesty. The U.S. Senate also unanimously opposed any leniency towards him in July, which is uncommon given the current clear divisions in U.S. crypto policy.
SBF was founded in 2019 as FTX and developed it into an encrypted trading platform with a valuation that once reached $32 billion. In November 2022, FTX collapsed during a liquidity crisis, and it was later revealed that customer funds were used to cover the losses of Alameda Research. SBF was arrested in the Bahamas that same year and was convicted after being tried by a New York jury the following year.
Additional information:The U.S. Supreme Court has not yet stated whether it will accept this case; according to public court data, the number of cases accepted and heard during each session accounts for only a very small portion of the total cases submitted.
