Disgraced FTX Founder SBF Seeks New Trial, Claims Judge Kaplan’s Bias Tainted His Case

Sam Bankman-Fried’s (SBF) lawyers have filed for a retrial, claiming that the court judge was biased in the case.

Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) is the co-founder and former CEO of the now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX. In November 2022, FTX collapsed following a report by CoinDesk, which revealed that FTX was not holding customers’ funds on its balance sheet. Subsequent investigations and trial outcomes showed that FTX leadership misused customers’ funds for personal gain without their consent. For these unethical activities, SBF faced nearly two dozen charges, and in the final judgement, the court sentenced him to 25 years in prison.

On 13 Sep 2024, The Block reported that SBF had filed an appeal, requesting a new trial.

SBF’s lawyer criticised New York District Judge Lewis Kaplan’s handling of the case. The lawyer claimed that SBF should not have been prevented from introducing certain evidence.

Additionally, the lawyer argued that SBF was presumed guilty before he was even charged by the media, the FTX debtor estate, and its lawyers.

According to SBF’s lawyer, the court did not allow SBF to present evidence showing that FTX’s sister companies, such as FTX US and Alameda Research, were not insolvent.

FTX Token Price Action

The current trade price of the FTX token (FTT), the native token of the FTX crypto exchange, is $1.32. It seems that this news acted as a small catalyst to boost the token’s trade price.

However, it’s important to note that this token has had no use case since November 2022, following the collapse of the FTX empire. Furthermore, during the bankruptcy proceedings, it was confirmed that the FTT token would not be used by any FTX leadership in the future. In short, it is now a useless crypto token.

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