Judge Dismisses Bankman-Fried’s New Trial Bid as “Reputation Rescue” Ploy

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A federal judge has denied Sam Bankman-Fried’s motion for a new trial, calling the effort part of a deliberate scheme the former FTX chief executive hatched to rehabilitate his public image following the exchange’s collapse and ruling the bid had no legal merit.

Kaplan Finds No Merit in Claims of New Evidence

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over Bankman-Fried’s 2023 trial and handed down a 25-year prison sentence in early 2024, issued his ruling Tuesday, writing that the former FTX CEO’s claim of newly discovered evidence was entirely baseless. He wrote in his order:

“This motion appears to be one part of a plan to rescue his reputation that Bankman-Fried hatched and even committed to writing after FTX declared bankruptcy but before he was indicted.” 

Bankman-Fried had filed the motion in February, seeking a new trial before a different judge, a procedural move he made without consulting his own legal team and while an appeals court was still reviewing his conviction and sentence.

When Kaplan refused to step aside, Bankman-Fried attempted to withdraw the request on Wednesday, telling the judge he didn’t believe he would “get a fair hearing on this topic in front of you.” Kaplan denied that withdrawal request as well.

Witnesses Were Known Before Trial, Judge Rules

Central to Bankman-Fried’s motion was the argument that three former FTX executives could rebut the government’s case that the exchange was insolvent. Kaplan rejected that argument outright, writing that none of the witnesses qualified as “newly discovered.” 

“Bankman-Fried well before trial knew all three of them and purportedly knew also what he hoped they would say were they to testify. The claim is baseless on multiple independently sufficient levels.”

Two of the executives named were Ryan Salame, former CEO of FTX’s Bahamian subsidiary, and Daniel Chapsky, the exchange’s former head of data science, both of whom did not testify at the original trial. Salame separately pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations and operating an illegal money-transmitting business, receiving a seven-and-a-half-year prison sentence in May 2024. 

Bankman-Fried also contended that Nishad Singh, FTX’s former engineering lead, altered his testimony “following threats from the government.” Singh had taken a plea deal with prosecutors and testified against Bankman-Fried at trial. Kaplan called that characterization “wildly conspiratorial and entirely contradicted by the record,” noting that Bankman-Fried could have sought to compel testimony from all three individuals before trial but chose not to.

Conviction Stands on Seven Criminal Counts

Bankman-Fried was convicted on seven counts of fraud and money laundering following a jury trial in late 2023. Jurors found that he had illegally transferred billions of dollars in FTX customer funds to the affiliated trading firm Alameda Research, which then deployed those funds in risky trades that contributed directly to the exchange’s November 2022 collapse. He is currently serving his sentence at a federal correctional facility in Lompoc, California.

At its peak, FTX was valued at $32 billion and counted some of the world’s largest venture capital firms among its backers. The collapse wiped out billions in customer assets virtually overnight and sent shockwaves through the broader crypto market. Judge Kaplan described the fraud as brazen and the harm caused as enormous. Bankman-Fried is currently serving his sentence at a federal correctional facility in Lompoc, California.

Appeals Court Review Still Pending

With the new trial motion now dismissed, attention turns to the separate appellate proceedings already underway. Bankman-Fried’s conviction and sentence remain under review by a federal appeals court, which represents his remaining formal legal avenue to challenge the outcome of one of the most consequential fraud trials in the history of the cryptocurrency industry.