Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of collapsed crypto exchange FTX, filed a request for a new trial in Manhattan federal court on 10 February, after firing his attorney and opting to represent himself in a 35-page pro se motion filed on his behalf by his mother, Barbara Fried, a Stanford Law School professor. Bankman-Fried invokes Rule 33 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, claiming newly discovered evidence that he says disproves the prosecution's central argument regarding the misappropriation of $8 billion in customer funds.
Bankman-Fried contends that evidence disclosed since his trial demonstrates FTX always held sufficient assets to repay customer deposits in full, and that the company faced a short-term liquidity crisis caused by a run on the exchange rather than insolvency. The filing also accuses the Department of Justice of coercing cooperating witness Nishad Singh, who allegedly contradicted key parts of the prosecution's narrative in his initial proffer to investigators before changing his testimony under pressure — in exchange for a recommendation of little or no prison time on charges carrying up to 75 years. Bankman-Fried further alleges prosecutorial retaliation against co-defendant Ryan Salame, claiming the DOJ broke a promise not to indict Salame's fiancée, Michelle Bond, on campaign finance charges after Salame pleaded guilty but declined to cooperate. The motion requests that Judge Lewis Kaplan recuse himself from ruling on the petition, citing manifest prejudice. Bankman-Fried continues to post on X via a proxy, positioning himself as a victim of the Biden administration's political lawfare against the crypto industry.
Bankman-Fried is serving his 25-year sentence at Terminal Island Federal Correctional Institution in California, with a separate appeal pending before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, while President Trump told The New York Times last month that he has no plans to grant a pardon.
Sources:
- https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-10/sam-bankman-fried-asks-for-new-trial-over-ftx-fraud-charges
- https://www.courthousenews.com/sam-bankman-fried-asks-for-a-new-trial-in-ftx-crypto-fraud-case/
- https://decrypt.co/357619/ftx-founder-sam-bankman-fried-requests-new-trial-firing-attorney
- https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2026/02/10/sam-bankman-fried-files-for-new-trial-over-ftx-fraud-charges
