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Sam Bankman-Fried, alias SBF, the disgraced founder of the now-bankrupt FTX crypto exchange, has withdrawn his motion for a new trial. This follows the recent conviction of Sam Bankman-Fried to serve 25 years in prison after his involvement in the fraud against FTX customers and investors, who felt he would not get a fair trial.
SBF wrote to the judge in charge of his case, Judge Kaplan, that he may refile the motion after he appeals directly and the case is reassigned.
Sam Bankman-Fried fears ‘justice’ is not on his side
According to reports, Barbara Fried, his mother, filed a motion for a retrial on his behalf, citing new information in the case that warrants a fresh start. The first request for a retrial was a typical course of action after the verdict, usually based on claimed procedural errors during the original trial.
As it stands, a Rule 33 motion is an application to a federal court seeking a retrial on the grounds of newly discovered evidence or a need for justice.
SBF’s letter to Judge Kaplan. Source. Court docs.However, the details of SBF’s request, which was ultimately withdrawn, are no longer relevant. The circumstances under which the defense lawyers made their case were typically about the evidentiary record and other procedural issues.
Bankman-Fried swears he wrote the motion himself while in custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
While emphasizing that he is the “author of the letter” sent to the judge, he stated that he consulted with his lawyers and parents, “as it affects them both.”
SBF argues that “They made editorial and organizational suggestions, some of which I incorporated into the motion.” In addition, “They also helped print it, as I no longer had access to a word processor. I also shared earlier drafts with a New York attorney who was originally hired to represent me on the Rule 33 Motion before I decided to represent myself; they had no significant input into the ultimate motion.”
Public reaction to Sam Bankman-Fried’s recent legal movements
SBF is not well-liked in the crypto community, unlike Binance’s CZ. The reactions to his abandoning a retrial are beyond crazy. One X user says, “SBF really said, ‘nah this judge cooked me, ‘ and dipped.” Another user tied him to Terra Lab’s Do Kwon’s behavior, adding, “The fallout from this saga keeps rippling. Reminds me of the Terra crash aftermath, where leaders tried to shift blame instead of owning up.”
Others have linked him with Harvey Weinstein, “a case of lying witnesses.” In any case, according to current calculations, FTX’s unliquidated portfolio is now worth $114 billion, with the largest return, 165x, coming from Anthropic, now valued at $82.3 billion.
His conviction and sentence were viewed by many as a vital milestone in addressing the lack of accountability in the decentralized crypto space. The fact that he withdrew his retrial petition can be perceived by some people as him giving up on proving any further facts in this case. For others, it might just be a publicity stunt.
Will SpaceX’s $50B deal for Cursor help SBF’s presidential pardon play?
As reported in April 2022, Alameda Research, a company owned by Sam Bankman-Fried, invested $200,000. This Anysphere investment gave them a stake of about 5% in the company. It means that 5% of the AI startup called Cursor cost $200,000 in 2023. But now, after the new $60 billion deal between SpaceX and Cursor, 5% of the company is worth $3 billion.
Recently, news broke about SpaceX’s cooperation with Cursor. At the $60 billion valuation of this deal, a 5% stake in the company sold by FTX at $200,000 would now be worth $3 billion.
As reported by Cryptopolitan, that deal has improved his chances of receiving a presidential pardon. However, Trump said he will not be pardoning Bankman-Fried.
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