Sam Bankman-Fried’s Crypto Fraud Appeal Denied, Days After His Plea for Trump Pardon

(AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

Convicted crypto fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried’s attempt to have his conviction overturned has been denied by a federal appeals court.

The Manhattan-based 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals denied the 34-year-old’s former FTX CEO’s claim that his 2023 trial was unfair, with Judge Barrington Parker writing that “the government’s evidence against him was, conservatively stated, robust.”

According to the Department of Justice, Bankman-Fried, who founded the cryptocurrency exchange FTX and the cryptocurrency trading firm Alameda Research, “misappropriated billions of dollars of customer funds deposited with FTX, defrauded investors in FTX of more than $1.7 billion, and defrauded lenders to Alameda of more than $1.3 billion.”

The ruling comes just days after Bankman-Fried appealed to President Donald Trump for a full pardon.

Bankman-Fried is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence for fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering related to the collapse of his crypto exchange in what prosecutors have called “one of the largest financial frauds in American history.”

Trump told The New York Times in January that he did not plan to pardon Bankman-Fried, but that assertion didn’t stop the disgraced former CEO from asking anyway.

According to the Times, “Mr. Bankman-Fried’s supporters and his parents have campaigned to convince the president, including working with a lawyer with presidential ties and reaching out to other well-connected people in Washington. Mr. Bankman-Fried’s father has publicly praised Mr. Trump’s policies, and Mr. Bankman-Fried sat for a jailhouse interview with Tucker Carlson, then a Trump ally, last year.”

And Politico reported that “Bankman-Fried — who at the height of his power was seen as a burgeoning Washington kingmaker — has been praising Trump in social media posts for months.”

“Yet Bankman-Fried is still toxic to many lawmakers in Washington — including Republicans involved in the ongoing debate over how to regulate the crypto market, a fight that Bankman-Fried and FTX once led for the industry,” the report said.

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