Former cryptocurrency entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn his fraud conviction.
Bankman-Fried, who co-founded and led former cryptocurrency exchange FTX, is serving a 25-year prison term after being convicted on seven counts of fraud and money laundering.
The former executive was found guilty by a jury of orchestrating a multibillion-dollar scheme to misappropriate customer funds and defraud investors.
FTX filed for bankruptcy in November 2022 with $9 billion U.S. in liabilities against $900 million U.S. in liquid assets on its balance sheet.
The petition to the Supreme Court argues that the trial court blocked Bankman-Fried from showing that FTX held sufficient assets and funds to repay investors.
Previous appeals of Bankman-Fried’s conviction at lower courts stressed that all of FTX’s customers have been repaid with interest and no money lost because of the exchange’s collapse.
Bankman-Fried also claims that a judge’s order for him to forfeit $11 billion U.S. violates the 8th Amendment, which bars excessive fines.
In essence, lawyers for Bankman-Fried are arguing that the 25-year prison term and $11 billion U.S. forfeiture are excessive given that no investors lost money due to the failure of FTX.
Bankruptcy trustees in the case have confirmed that sufficient funds were found to repay investors with interest in the FTX case.
Despite this fact, lower appeal courts have upheld Bankman-Fried’s conviction. A request for a presidential pardon has also been turned down by Donald Trump.
The U.S. Supreme Court, which decides which cases it will hear, is expected to decide by year’s end if it will hear Bankman-Fried’s appeal.
