In a letter to the judge overseeing his case, Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, withdrew his request for a retrial over doubts he would get a fair hearing.
Bankman-Fried is serving a 25-year sentence after being convicted of seven counts of fraud and conspiracy related to FTX’s 2022 collapse. He said he may refile the motion after his direct appeal and related reassignment request are decided.
His mother, Barbara Fried, filed a motion for a new trial, claiming new evidence in the case would justify a new trial.
Bankman-Fried said the motion was largely drafted personally while he was being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, with limited help.
He said that while he clarified to the judge that he was “the author of the letter,” he did consult with his attorney and parents “as it concerns both of them.”
“They made editorial and organizational suggestions, some of which I incorporated into the motion,” Bankman-Fried said. “They also helped print it since I no longer had access to a word processing program. I also shared an early draft with a New York attorney who was originally hired to represent me in the Article 33 motion before I decided to represent myself; they provided no significant input on the final motion.”
A Section 33 motion is a formal request to a federal court for a new trial based on new evidence or in the interest of justice.
The appeal is currently before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. During oral arguments in November, his attorney, Alexandra Shapiro, argued that the trial was “fundamentally unfair,” including restrictions on what Bankman-Fried could tell the jury.
