One of Sam Bankman-Fried’s most promising avenues to freedom was closed Friday when a federal court upheld his fraud conviction and 25-year prison sentence, ruling that the case against him was, in the words of the court, “seriously, strong.”
A three-judge group of Manhattan referring to the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals issued a 42-page opinion on June 12, rejecting any argument of the Sam Bankman-Fried legal team in advance of resolving the decision of November 2023 that cemented one of the biggest falls in crypto history, according to to Reuters.
At the heart of the appeal were claims that U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan deprived Sam Bankman-Fried of adequate immunity by barring evidence that FTX had sufficient assets to repay the terminated customers.
Attorney Alexandra Shapiro he said In November 2025, the appellate panel said that “the Bankman-Fried case was unfair because the court only heard one side of the story.”
Prosecutors argued that Kaplan’s decision was correct: fraud cases are based on misuse, not whether the assets could have paid off various debts. The appellant agreed, finding that the trial court’s rulings were reasonable and that the state’s case against Sam Bankman-Fried was substantial.
How FTX Fell
The exchange, which was valued at $32 billion, he has fallen in November 2022 when it became known that the Alameda Research fund – Bankman-Fried’s affiliated hedge fund – was built on the FTX token which is not an independent asset. The disclosure led to a client rush that opened an $8 billion hole in FTX’s accounts.
Three of the former Bankman-Fried ministers – Alameda CEO Caroline EllisonFTX co-founder Gary Wang, and engineering director Nishad Singh – each pleaded guilty and testified against him. Ellison, a key witness in the case, told jurors that Bankman-Fried gave him instructions to transfer customer deposits to Alameda to repay loans to crypto lenders. “Sam told me to commit these crimes,” he said at the scene.
Court he ordered the forfeiture of $11 billion and three years of supervised release after the Bankman-Fried decision of March 2024. Ellison received two years and was released in January 2026 after serving 14 months.
The appeals court decision comes weeks after Bankman-Fried he also submitted a petition for pardon and the DOJ’s Office of the Pardon Attorney, seeking a pardon from President Donald Trump. The deal is billed as a “pardon upon completion of sentence” — not commutation — and Trump has publicly said he won’t grant it.
Judge Kaplan he refused A new Rule 33 ruling in April 2026 called Bankman-Fried’s allegations that witnesses were intimidated by the government “criminal and against the record.” Bankman-Fried dismissed the previous action on April 22 without prejudice.
With the 2nd Circuit now closed, his legal options are limited to a habeas petition — a process with less success than a direct appeal — or a Supreme Court petition.
What’s next for Sam Bankman-Fried
Sam Bankman-Fried is still in a minimum security prison near Santa Barbara, California, and is not scheduled to be released until 2044.
In prison interview and Fox Business this month, he maintained his stance: “I still don’t have user money.” He also said that the FTX bankruptcy estate had also returned crypto assets, which has resulted in the estate paying debts of more than 100 cents on the dollar – a figure he notes as evidence of FTX’s actions, although courts at all levels have refused to make this up.
Friday’s ruling closes the chapter on what federal prosecutors called “mass fraud” – a case that undermined institutional confidence in crypto markets, triggered congressional hearings, and forced exchanges across companies to change their storage systems.
Back in January, President Donald Trump he said he will not forgive the former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, refusing mercy to the chief criminal crypto.
