Former Crypto Billionaire and FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has appealed for a fresh trial over his $8 billion FTX fraud case. The Former Executive was convicted following his $8 billion FTX trial and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
The Five-week trial which happened late last year convicted Sam Bankman Fried of defrauding FTX investors of $8 billion following the firm filing for bankruptcy and shutting down.
Sam Bankman Fried’s new lawyer Alexandra A.E Shapiro argued that the judgment against his client was flawed because the Judge in question presumed Sam guilty from the onset of the trial.
The new lawyer filled out a 102-page document arguing that Judge Kaplan hindered Bankman -Fried defense and limited his evidence.
Sam Bankman Fried who appeared on the 2023 Forbes list of Crypto billionaires is currently serving out his 25-year jail term in a federal prison facility.
The EX CEO of FTX exchange has maintained his innocence stating that he didn’t intentionally misappropriate billions of investor’s monies or hide the true financial health of his business from investors.
Sam Bankman Fried did not go down alone after the collapse of FTX. His colleagues and members of his management team like Caroline Elison who was the CEO of Alameda Research and Ryan Salame also face prison time.
Caroline Elison in her defense is pushing for a supervised release with her team of lawyers while Salame frolicked with Justice Department prosecutors over probe of his partner.
The collapse of FTX opened the doors for serious litigation involving all parties. The defunct FTX exchange, its sister company Alameda Research, and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission reached a settlement fee of $12.7 billion last month.
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission under Gary Gensler revealed that it might contest FTX’s plans to repay its creditors in Stablecoins.
What to Know
- FTX exchange was a leading crypto exchange in the industry in its days and was a top destination for Bitcoin trading, especially in the Chinese market.
- Sam Bankman Fried the man behind the platform went from a crypto billionaire to filing for bankruptcy with less than $100,000 to his name as reported by Nairametrics earlier.
- The collapse of FTX whose imprint also extends into Africa was a significant bearish development for the crypto industry with lots of Africans losing their invested funds.
- FTT the native token of the FTX ecosystem lost a significant portion of its value following the Collapse,
- Sam Bankman Fried who was based in Bahamas during the hay days of FTX was fond of throwing big parties and inviting celebrities over. His exorbitant lifestyle did not help his case when FTX collapsed.