Sam Bankman-Fried Appeals 25-Year Sentence, Claims He Was Presumed Guilty

Sam Bankman-Fried , the convicted co-founder of collapsed crypto exchange FTX, has filed an appeal challenging his 25-year prison ￰1￱ legal team argues he was “presumed guilty” from the outset and denied a fair trial due to judicial bias and public ￰2￱ to a Bloomberg report on Tuesday, Bankman-Fried’s attorneys submitted a filing to the ￰3￱ of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York, alleging their client’s conviction stemmed from a “rush to judgment” by prosecutors, the media, and ￰4￱ Judge Lewis Kaplan. “Sam Bankman-Fried was never presumed ￰5￱ was presumed guilty—before he was even charged, ” the defense ￰6￱ filing accuses Judge Kaplan of displaying bias during proceedings, claiming he “ repeatedly ridiculed ” the defense team and showed disbelief in Bankman-Fried’s testimony before the ￰7￱ Bankman-Fried Conviction and Appeal Strategy Bankman-Fried was convicted in 2023 on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy related to the collapse of FTX and its trading affiliate, Alameda ￰8￱ alleged he misappropriated over $8 billion in customer funds to cover losses, make political donations, and finance luxury real estate ￰9￱ claiming he never intended to defraud anyone, jurors returned a guilty verdict after less than five hours of ￰10￱ the appeal is Alexandra Shapiro, a seasoned appellate attorney known for overturning high-profile white-collar ￰11￱ Criminal defense attorney/) October 31, 2025 The defense asserts Kaplan pressured jurors into a quick decision by offering to extend deliberations late into the evening with dinner ￰12￱ claim the judge’s remarks, including calling part of Bankman-Fried’s testimony “ a joke “, compromised trial ￰13￱ appeal seeks to overturn his 25-year sentence and challenge the $11 billion restitution ￰14￱ attorneys are requesting a new trial under a different ￰15￱ Speculation Reports earlier this year indicated SBF’s parents explored possible avenues for a presidential pardon from President Donald ￰16￱ March, Bankman-Fried appeared on Tucker Carlson’s podcast, criticizing former SEC Chair Gary ￰17￱ month, a post on his official X account alleged that “Biden’s anti-crypto SEC/DOJ went after him and arrested him in 2022 to prevent his testimony on Capitol ￰18￱ Bankman-Fried @SBF_FTX says his 2022 arrest wasn’t justice but politics, claiming the Biden administration turned on him after he backed GOP candidates. #SBF #GOP ￰0￱ — ￰19￱ (@cryptonews) October 15, 2025 “They had me arrested weeks before the crypto bill I was working on was set for a vote—and the night before I was set to testify before Congress,”