Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, arrives in court as lawyers move to persuade the judge overseeing his fraud case not to jail him before trial, at a New York courthouse , August 11, 2023.
Eduardo Munoz | Reuters
A lawyer for FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried on Thursday filed a notice of appeal of his federal fraud and conspiracy convictions and his 25-year prison sentence.
Bankman-Fried’s appeal comes two weeks after he was sentenced in US District Court in Manhattan and ordered to pay $11 billion in forfeiture for massive fraud at cryptocurrency exchange FTX and a related hedge fund, Alameda Research. Prosecutors said it was one of the largest financial frauds in history.
The appeal, which is expected, will be heard by a three-judge panel of the 2nd Circuit US Court of Appeals, which sits in Manhattan.
Criminal defendants face very long odds of overturning their convictions in federal court, winning reversals in fewer than 10% of appeals. If Bankman-Fried loses in the 2nd Circuit, she would have to petition the US Supreme Court to take up her appeal, which is a longer shot.
Alexandra Shapiro, the attorney who filed Bankman-Fried’s notice of appeal, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
Bankman-Fried, 32, was convicted at trial in November of seven counts of fraud and conspiracy related to the misappropriation of about $10 billion in customer money.
The Manhattan US Attorney’s Office said Bankman-Fried oversaw a conspiracy that stole customer funds to make investments and fund political donations to Democrats and Republicans. He also used the embezzled funds for personal expenses and to pay off loans taken out by Alameda Research, prosecutors said.
When he sentenced Bankman-Fried, Judge Lewis Kaplan said, “There is a risk that this person will be in a position to do something very bad in the future.”
“And it’s not a small risk at all,” Kaplan added, noting that he had never heard “one word of remorse for committing such terrible crimes” from Bankman-Fried.
Bankman-Fried, who is the daughter of Stanford Law professors, suggested that FTX lost billions of dollars in customer funds due to a “liquidity crisis” or “mismanagement.”
Four other top executives at FTX and Alameda previously pleaded guilty.
One of them, Ryan Salame, is scheduled to be sentenced by Kaplan on May 28.
Sentencing dates have not yet been set for Caroline Ellison, CEO of Alameda; FTX technology chief Gary Wang; and Nishad Singh, who is FTX’s engineering boss.
