Appeals court upholds Sam Bankman-Fried fraud conviction and prison sentence

Sam Bankman-Fried’s bid to erase his fraud conviction ran into another hard stop as a federal appeals court left his 25-year prison sentence intact, reinforcing how thoroughly the FTX collapse has been tested in court. A unanimous three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said the government’s evidence was robust and upheld findings that Bankman-Fried misled customers, investors and regulators while secretly diverting customer money to Alameda Research.

The ruling matters because it does more than preserve one sentence. It confirms the trial record that showed FTX customers’ funds were moved to Alameda, the hedge fund tied to the exchange, and it rejects the defense’s argument that Bankman-Fried should have been allowed to present more evidence about his belief that FTX had enough assets to cover withdrawals. The appeals court said fraud is complete when a defendant tricks people into handing over money or property, even if the defendant later claims he meant to make them whole.

Bankman-Fried’s criminal case grew out of the implosion of FTX Trading Ltd. and 101 affiliated debtors, which filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy petitions in Delaware in November 2022. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission later accused him of orchestrating a scheme to defraud equity investors in FTX Trading Ltd. from at least May 2019 through November 2022, saying he raised more than $1.8 billion while falsely portraying FTX as a safe trading platform and giving Alameda special privileges. In the criminal case, the Justice Department has also said Bankman-Fried and co-conspirators authorized an illicit transfer of about $40 million in cryptocurrency in a separate bribery-related count tied to efforts to unfreeze trading accounts holding about $1 billion in crypto.

The appellate loss narrows Bankman-Fried’s remaining options. He can still ask the full 2nd Circuit to rehear the case or petition the Supreme Court, but neither route is guaranteed to take up his challenge. At the same time, he has pursued a pardon from President Donald Trump, filing a formal request on June 8, 2026. The Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney handles clemency applications, including pardons, commutations and reprieves, though individual reviews are not made public.

The bankruptcy estate has continued to send money back to creditors, underscoring that the consequences of the collapse are still being felt by customers and lenders. Reported distributions included a planned $1.6 billion payout in September 2025 and a $2.2 billion payment scheduled for March 31, 2026. For crypto executives and investors, the message from the appeals court was plain: the legal system has not lost sight of how FTX fell apart, and accountability for that misconduct remains firmly in place.