Sam Bankman-Fried Withdraws Motion for New Trial

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has formally withdrawn his request for a new trial. In a letter to the presiding judge, Bankman-Fried expressed skepticism that he would receive a fair hearing should the motion proceed. Bankman-Fried is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence following his conviction on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy related to the 2022 collapse of FTX. The motion for a retrial had been initiated by his mother, Barbara Fried, who argued that new evidence warranted a reset of the legal proceedings. The former CEO clarified that he was the primary author of the motion, which he drafted while detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. While he received editorial assistance from his parents and consulted with legal counsel, he maintained that the core of the request was his own. Despite the withdrawal, Bankman-Fried indicated that he may renew the motion once his direct appeal and a request for reassignment are decided. His current appeal is pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, where his legal team has previously argued that the original trial was fundamentally unfair due to limits on the evidence presented to the jury.