Sam Bankman-Fried, the co-founder of FTX, has filed a petition with the US Supreme Court to challenge his 2023 fraud conviction and 25-year prison sentence. His legal representative, Jeffrey Fisher, confirmed the submission of the writ of certiorari, which asks the justices to review the case.
The legal action follows a ruling by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals on June 12, which upheld the original conviction. The appellate court rejected arguments regarding the potential repayment of FTX customers, stating that the fraud occurred at the moment funds were transferred to Alameda Research.
The Supreme Court receives thousands of petitions annually but accepts only a small fraction for review. If the court declines to hear the case, the conviction and the $11 billion forfeiture order imposed by Judge Lewis Kaplan in March will remain in effect.
The criminal proceedings are separate from the ongoing bankruptcy process of FTX. Creditor repayments are currently proceeding independently of the Supreme Court petition. Meanwhile, market participants on Polymarket currently estimate a 2% probability of a pardon for Bankman-Fried by 2026.
