Sam Bankman-Fried, the convicted founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, filed a motion for a new trial in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday, arguing that suppressed witness testimony could disprove the prosecution's case against him.
The motion was filed pro se - meaning Bankman-Fried is representing himself - after he fired his appellate lawyer last week.
His mother, Stanford Law ethics professor Barbara Fried, submitted the filing on his behalf from prison, where he is serving a 25-year sentence.
What Happened
The motion, dated Feb. 5 and docketed on Tuesday, invokes Rule 33 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure and the due process clause of the U.S. Constitution. Rule 33 allows defendants to seek a new trial within three years of a guilty verdict based on newly discovered evidence.
Bankman-Fried argued in the filing that FTX "always had sufficient assets to repay customer deposits in full" and that the exchange faced "a short-term liquidity crisis caused by a run on the exchange, not insolvency." He claimed his right to a fair trial was violated.
The motion included what Bankman-Fried described as would-be testimony from two former FTX insiders. Daniel Chapsky, FTX's former head of data science, reportedly would have testified that claims of billions in unrepayable customer losses were false. Ryan Salame, the former co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, would have disputed several prosecution claims.
Both said they had been afraid to testify at the original trial.
The Legal Landscape
This motion is separate from a formal appeal filed in September 2024, which challenged Judge Lewis Kaplan's handling of the trial.
That appeal was argued before the Second Circuit in November 2025 and remains pending.
Bankman-Fried was convicted in November 2023 on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy tied to FTX's collapse and the misappropriation of roughly $10 billion in customer funds. He was sentenced to 25 years and ordered to forfeit $11 billion.
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Why It Matters
Legal experts have consistently described Bankman-Fried's chances as remote. Rule 33 motions rarely succeed, and the defendant must show the evidence was unavailable at trial and would likely produce an acquittal.
Meanwhile, Bankman-Fried has been posting on X through a proxy, comparing his prosecution to Biden-era "lawfare" against the cryptocurrency industry and attempting to align himself with President Donald Trump by claiming both faced politically motivated charges.
That strategy has not gained traction - Trump told the New York Times last month he has no intention of granting a pardon.
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