Appeals Court Upholds SBF’s 25-Year Fraud Conviction

A federal appeals court in Manhattan on Friday unanimously upheld Sam Bankman‑Fried’s 2024 fraud and conspiracy convictions and his 25‑year federal prison sentence. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit rejected his argument that FTX could have repaid customers after transfers to Alameda Research and other uses of customer funds.

The three-judge panel wrote that the government presented robust evidence at trial and that Bankman‑Fried’s misrepresentations and falsified business records alone supported the fraud convictions. The court cited a 2025 Supreme Court decision that held a defendant commits fraud when a material misstatement induces victims to hand over money, even if the defendant did not intend to cause a net loss.

Bankman‑Fried was convicted by a Manhattan jury in 2024 on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy and was sentenced to 25 years. He is serving that sentence at a federal prison in California.

His appeal argued FTX remained solvent and could have repaid customers despite transfers of customer funds to Alameda, political donations and personal purchases. The appeals court rejected that defense and noted the transfers and the falsified records were not contested by Bankman‑Fried.

The opinion said Bankman‑Fried “does not meaningfully contest the substantial evidence the government marshaled at trial,” and it dismissed his challenges to the sufficiency of the evidence and other legal claims raised on appeal.

With appeals exhausted, a presidential pardon is the remaining legal option. Bankman‑Fried formally applied this week for a pardon to take effect after completion of his sentence, a filing visible on the Office of the Pardon Attorney’s public records.

He has publicly sought clemency and tried to cultivate favor with the president on social media. When asked about a pardon during a television interview, he said clemency would be “ultimately up to the president, not up to me.”

President Trump has granted clemency to several figures in the cryptocurrency sector since returning to office but has indicated he does not intend to extend relief to Bankman‑Fried. Support for clemency has also come from other public figures.

FTX collapsed in late 2022 after a liquidity crisis and a wave of customer withdrawals that led to the exchange’s bankruptcy and an FBI investigation. Prosecutors said Bankman‑Fried diverted customer deposits to cover losses at Alameda and to fund personal expenses and political contributions. Defense lawyers argued at trial and on appeal that the transfers did not necessarily cause customer losses because the firm retained assets that could have been used to repay customers; the appeals court rejected that legal theory.

The Second Circuit’s unanimous opinion leaves the convictions and sentence in place and clears the way for any petition for executive clemency.