Sam Bankman-Fried, the former head of FTX, is asking a federal judge for another shot in court.
Acting on his own, he submitted a motion in the Southern District of New York requesting a new trial tied to his fraud conviction. He argues that jurors never heard important testimony from two former FTX executives, testimony he believes could have changed the outcome.
This request is separate from his ongoing appeal of both the verdict and the 25-year prison sentence he’s currently serving.
Bankman-Fried was found guilty in 2023 on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy following the dramatic collapse of FTX. Prosecutors said he misused customer funds to plug losses, fund high-risk trades at Alameda Research, and bankroll personal spending. The exchange imploded in November 2022 after it was revealed that Alameda had been heavily backed by customer deposits, leaving a massive hole in the balance sheet and pushing the company into bankruptcy.
The new filing falls under Rule 33, which allows a court to order a retrial if new evidence emerges or if a serious injustice may have occurred. Because he is incarcerated, the paperwork was submitted by his mother, Stanford Law professor emerita Barbara Fried.
Meanwhile, posts from his verified X account, run through third parties, have stirred fresh controversy. In one message, he claimed,
“FTX was never bankrupt,”
accusing lawyers of filing a “bogus” Chapter 11 to seize control. That assertion clashes with court findings that documented a multibillion-dollar shortfall in customer assets.
Legal analysts note that motions like this rarely succeed. To win, he would need to show that the missing testimony likely would have led to a different verdict.
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