Sam Bankman-Fried has lost his appeal against his fraud conviction and 25-year prison sentence, with a federal appeals court in Manhattan ruling that the former FTX chief executive received a fair trial and was properly convicted for his role in the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld both the conviction and sentence on Friday, concluding that the evidence presented by prosecutors was overwhelming. The judges described Bankman-Fried as the "main driver of one of the largest frauds on record," according to a ruling cited by Forbes.
The decision leaves in place the sentence imposed in March 2024, when a New York jury found Bankman-Fried guilty on seven criminal counts, including wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, securities fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy. The case stemmed from the 2022 collapse of FTX, which triggered a crisis across the cryptocurrency sector and erased billions of dollars in customer funds.
Bankman-Fried's lawyers argued on appeal that U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan improperly limited evidence and testimony that could have supported his defense. The appeals court rejected those claims, finding that Kaplan acted within his discretion and that additional testimony risked confusing jurors, according to The Associated Press.
The court also dismissed arguments that the trial was fundamentally unfair. In its ruling, the panel said the government's evidence against Bankman-Fried was "conservatively stated, robust," language also highlighted by Reuters.
Federal prosecutors accused Bankman-Fried of diverting billions of dollars in customer deposits from FTX to Alameda Research, a cryptocurrency trading firm he also controlled. Prosecutors said the money was used to cover trading losses, finance investments, purchase luxury real estate and fund political contributions. During the trial, several former senior FTX executives testified against him after reaching cooperation agreements with prosecutors.
FTX's collapse in November 2022 became one of the defining events of the crypto industry's downturn. The exchange had been valued at $32 billion earlier that year and was widely regarded as one of the largest cryptocurrency trading platforms in the world. Its failure sent shockwaves through digital asset markets and intensified scrutiny from regulators and lawmakers in the United States and abroad.
Before the collapse, Bankman-Fried had become one of the most recognizable figures in cryptocurrency. He secured celebrity endorsements for FTX, including a Super Bowl advertisement featuring comedian Larry David, and expanded the company's profile through major sponsorship deals. The exchange also acquired naming rights to the arena used by the NBA's Miami Heat, an agreement that was terminated after FTX entered bankruptcy proceedings.
Bankman-Fried's net worth, once estimated by Forbes at as much as $26.5 billion during the cryptocurrency boom, has since been wiped out following FTX's bankruptcy and his criminal conviction.
