filed<\/a> its mandate on Aug. 4, putting its June 12 judgment into effect and returning jurisdiction over the case to the lower court.<\/p>\nThe mandate formally affirmed the judgment issued by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. A jury convicted Bankman-Fried in November 2023 on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy tied to the collapse of FTX and its affiliated trading firm, Alameda Research.<\/p>\n
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan sentenced him to 25 years in federal prison in March 2024. Kaplan also imposed a forfeiture order of approximately $11 billion.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The three-judge appellate panel unanimously rejected Bankman-Fried\u2019s effort to overturn both his conviction and sentence. Judges Barrington Parker, Eunice Lee and Maria Ara\u00fajo Kahn found no reversible error in the trial court\u2019s evidentiary decisions or jury instructions.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the reasons set forth below, we affirm the judgment of the district court,\u201d the panel said in its June opinion.<\/p>\n
The mandate adds no new legal reasoning. It makes the earlier appellate ruling official and closes the regular proceeding before the three-judge panel.<\/p>\n
FTX repayments did not erase the fraud<\/h2>\n
Bankman-Fried argued that the trial court unfairly restricted evidence suggesting FTX held assets that could eventually make customers whole. His defense maintained that the exchange had sufficient value and that creditors\u2019 losses were not necessarily permanent.<\/p>\n
The Second Circuit rejected that argument. It ruled that wire fraud occurred when customer funds were transferred to Alameda without authorization, regardless of whether Bankman-Fried believed the money could later be repaid.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the district court made clear, FTX customers were defrauded as soon as Bankman-Fried transferred their money to Alameda regardless of how strongly he believed he might later return the money,\u201d Parker wrote.<\/p>\n
The court also found that evidence about the subsequent value of FTX-linked investments was not relevant to whether the initial transfers constituted fraud. Prosecutors presented evidence that customer assets funded investments, political donations and real estate purchases while Bankman-Fried publicly claimed the deposits were safe.<\/p>\n
The decision separates Bankman-Fried\u2019s criminal liability from the recovery creditors may receive through FTX\u2019s bankruptcy proceedings.<\/p>\n
FTX creditor payments continue separately<\/h2>\n
As crypto.news reported, FTX scheduled its fifth creditor distribution for July 31, with nearly $900 million expected to reach claimants holding approved Convenience and Non-Convenience Class claims.<\/p>\n
Eligible creditors had to complete the exchange\u2019s pre-distribution requirements by the June 16 record date. Kraken, Payoneer and BitGo were among the approved providers handling payments.<\/p>\n
The distributions arise from FTX\u2019s Chapter 11 reorganization plan and do not reverse the criminal findings against Bankman-Fried. The appeals court said later repayment or asset appreciation could not excuse the original misuse of customer funds.<\/p>\n
The distinction is relevant to U.S. creditors, some of whom may recover approved bankruptcy claims while Bankman-Fried continues serving his federal sentence.<\/p>\n
Supreme Court or clemency remain possible<\/h2>\n
Bankman-Fried can still ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case. The Supreme Court accepts only a small share of petitions, and filing one would not automatically suspend his sentence or overturn the appellate mandate.<\/p>\n
Presidential clemency provides another route outside the courts. Bankman-Fried has publicly said he wants a pardon, but President Donald Trump said in January that he was not considering one.<\/p>\n
Political resistance has also grown. In July, the U.S. Senate passed a nonbinding resolution by unanimous consent opposing a pardon, commutation or other form of federal clemency for the former FTX executive.<\/p>\n
The resolution does not limit the president\u2019s constitutional pardon power. However, it signals bipartisan opposition to reducing Bankman-Fried\u2019s punishment as FTX continues returning recovered assets to creditors.<\/p>\n
<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A federal appeals court has issued its mandate affirming Sam Bankman-Fried\u2019s fraud conviction, 25-year prison sentence and $11 billion forfeiture order. Summary The Second Circuit formally upheld seven felony convictions…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36603,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36602"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36604,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36602\/revisions\/36604"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}