Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of collapsed crypto exchange FTX, has withdrawn his request for reconsideration in a letter to the judge overseeing his case over doubts that he will get a fair trial.
Bankman-Fried, who is serving a 25-year sentence after pleading guilty to seven counts of fraud and conspiracy related to the 2022 collapse of FTX, said he may renew the motion after a decision is made on his direct appeal and related request for reassignment.
The petition for a new trial was filed by his mother, Barbara Fried, claiming that new evidence in the case would justify a retrial.
Bankman-Fried said she largely drafted the proposal while in custody with limited assistance at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
Although clarifying that he was the “author of the letter” to the judge, he had consulted his lawyers and his parents “because it concerns both of them,” he said.
Bankman-Fried said, “They made editorial and organizational suggestions, some of which I incorporated into the proposal.” “He also helped print it, since 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 a Rule 33 motion before I decided to represent myself; he had no significant input into the final motion.”
A Rule 33 motion is a formal request to the federal court for a new trial based on new evidence or in the interest of justice.
The appeal is currently before the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. During oral arguments in November, her attorney, Alexandra Shapiro, argued that the trial was “fundamentally unfair”, including limitations on what Bankman-Fried could present to the jury.