‘Presumed guilty’: Sam Bankman-Fried appeals, argues judge unfair.

Imprisoned FTX co-founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has filed an appeal to overturn his fraud conviction, court documents show Friday.

An appeal from Bankman-Fried's attorneys argued that he did not receive a fair trial and therefore should be retried by a new judge.

Bankman-Fried's attorneys wrote that he was “pleaded guilty – even before he was charged.”

“He was deemed guilty by the media,” the record continues. “He was presumed guilty by the FTX debtor's estate and his lawyers. He was presumed guilty by federal prosecutors eager for quick headlines. And he was presumed guilty by the judge presiding over the trial.”

The attorneys—Alexandra AE Sapiro, Theodore Sampsell-Jones, and Jason A. Driscoll – They argued that FTX was never a plaintiff and actually had billions of dollars to pay customers despite the liquidity problems affecting the platform.

When market conditions rocked the exchange, legal counsel for FTX took over (and The entire crypto industry) and pushed it through bankruptcy proceedings, mismanaging it and losing money in the process, according to Bankuman-Fried's defense team.

The document argues that Bankman-Fried was never able to present his side of the story – that he actually had money to pay back clients, but through illegal investments.

“Bankman-Fried did not lose or steal all the money, and the investments he made were not risky or stupid,” the lawyers added. “FTX had a speed problem, not a resolution problem.”

FTX was a large crypto exchange. He suddenly fell In the year By November 2022, it will give way to evidence of serious fraud and mismanagement with its first liquidity crisis. It was Bankman-Fried caught up It was soon followed by a trial Accused of fraud Last November. will do Served 25 years Behind the bar.

Bankman-Fried and his team criminally mismanaged the company. FTX's core product was a popular crypto exchange that allowed customers to buy, sell and trade the future value of digital assets. But the cash deposited by customers was illegally used by Bankman Fried & Associates through its sister investment firm Alameda Research to make risky bets, leading to its rapid collapse.

Editor's note: This story has been updated after publication with additional details.

Edited by Andrew Hayward.