USDSam Bankman-Fried Loses Appeal as 25-Year Sentence Stands
Pardon bid remains pending after court rejects FTX founder’s challenge
TL;DR
- Sam Bankman-Fried lost his federal appeal, leaving his fraud conviction and prison sentence intact.
- His presidential pardon request with President Donald Trump remains pending in Justice Department records.
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Sam Bankman-Fried’s attempt to overturn his fraud conviction failed on June 12, 2026, when a federal appeals court upheld the former FTX founder’s conviction and 25-year prison sentence, leaving a pending presidential pardon request as his clearest remaining route out of prison.
According to Reuters, a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan rejected Bankman-Fried’s challenge and upheld his 2023 conviction on seven felony counts, including wire fraud and conspiracy charges. The ruling preserved both the jury’s verdict and the sentence imposed after one of the most closely watched criminal cases to emerge from the collapse of a crypto company.
The appeals court sharply rejected Bankman-Fried’s arguments about the fairness of his trial. The judges wrote, “Bankman-Fried makes these arguments in the face of a trial at which the government’s evidence against him was, conservatively stated, robust.” The language made clear that the panel viewed the prosecution’s case as strong, not legally fragile.
Bankman-Fried had argued that U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan unfairly excluded evidence that FTX was solvent and could meet customer withdrawals. Prosecutors said testimony from Bankman-Fried’s former lieutenants showed he directed the theft of customer funds to cover losses at Alameda Research, FTX’s affiliated trading firm.
The defense theory rested on the claim that customer recoverability mattered to the fraud case because FTX could still repay users. The appeals judges rejected that argument, finding that any alleged ability to repay customers did not erase the fraud allegations because Bankman-Fried’s misrepresentations and concealment remained central to the case.
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Court says repayment argument did not erase fraud
The appeals court cited a 2025 Supreme Court case for the principle that a defendant commits fraud when using “a material misstatement” to trick victims into handing over money, even if the defendant does not intend to cause victims a net loss. That point directly undercut Bankman-Fried’s argument that solvency or recoverability should have changed the outcome.
The ruling said Bankman-Fried falsified business records to hide how he spent FTX customer funds in ways customers had not authorized. The judges also said he did not meaningfully refute the existence of those transactions or the associated falsified records.
“Bankman-Fried does not meaningfully contest the substantial evidence the government marshalled at trial,” the judges wrote. The quote captured the court’s central view of the appeal: Bankman-Fried challenged the framing of the case, but the panel found the underlying evidence remained largely intact.
A federal jury convicted Bankman-Fried in November 2023 after less than five hours of deliberation. At sentencing on March 28, 2024, Judge Kaplan described the fraud as a “very bad bet” on not getting caught.
Bankman-Fried admitted operational mistakes but maintained that he never intended to steal funds. The case followed FTX’s collapse in November 2022, when concerns around Alameda Research exposed an $8 billion hole in FTX’s accounts and triggered a rush of customer withdrawals.
The collapse was described as an $8 billion crypto failure that erased billions in value and intensified regulatory scrutiny across digital assets. Bankruptcy proceedings have enabled substantial customer recoveries, but the case remains tied to centralized crypto platform risk, governance failures and compliance breakdowns.
Pardon request becomes central after appeal loss
Bankman-Fried, 34, is serving his sentence at a low-security federal correctional facility near Santa Barbara, California. Further appeals to the full Second Circuit or the Supreme Court remain possible, but those paths face steep odds after the panel’s ruling.
Bankman-Fried has also formally asked President Donald Trump for a presidential pardon. The request appeared in U.S. Department of Justice clemency records as a pending petition, placing the matter inside the federal clemency review process without producing a public decision.
The filing became publicly visible through records maintained by the Department of Justice’s Office of the Pardon Attorney, which handles federal clemency review records. The office does not publicly disclose details of ongoing reviews, so the contents of Bankman-Fried’s application and any internal status updates remain undisclosed.
During a recent FOX Business phone interview, correspondent Susan Li asked Bankman-Fried, “I assume that you would want a pardon from the White House?” Bankman-Fried replied, “Absolutely.” He added, “It would be obviously, you know, ultimately up to the president, not up to me.”
Bankman-Fried declined to say whether his family was actively lobbying the Trump administration. His parents, Stanford Law School professors Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, previously contacted people within Trump’s orbit to explore a possible presidential pardon, though it remains unclear whether those efforts led to direct White House discussions.
Bankman-Fried also made public statements supportive of Trump through prison-approved communications relayed by intermediaries. Those statements included praise for Trump’s decision to launch strikes against Iran, an argument that Trump helped “save” the Securities and Exchange Commission by replacing former Chair Gary Gensler with Paul Atkins, and references to lower gasoline prices during Trump’s presidency.
Bankman-Fried’s X account also praised some of Trump’s actions over the past year, including Trump’s pardon of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández. He also appeared on Tucker Carlson’s program after previously being viewed as a major Democratic donor during the 2020 election cycle.
Trump has previously signaled that Bankman-Fried should not expect clemency. During a January interview with The New York Times, Trump said Bankman-Fried should not count on receiving a pardon. A White House spokesperson later referred back to those comments and reiterated that the president had no plans to pardon him.
Trump has granted clemency to several prominent crypto-linked figures since returning to office, including Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao and the co-founders of BitMEX. Bankman-Fried has not received the same treatment.
The crypto industry and its allies in Washington have pushed back forcefully against clemency for Bankman-Fried. Still, Bankman-Fried has continued seeking a pardon, and Drake called for his release from prison in a recent, critically panned album.
FAQ
What did the appeals court decide?
It upheld Bankman-Fried’s fraud conviction and prison sentence.
Is Bankman-Fried’s pardon request approved?
No. It is listed as pending in Justice Department records.
Where is Bankman-Fried serving his sentence?
At a low-security federal prison near Santa Barbara, California.
What happened to FTT after the filing?
FTT jumped sharply, then gave back part of the move.
This article has been refined and enhanced by ChatGPT.
