Sam Bankman-Fried has quietly pulled a bid for a new trial, saying in a letter to the judge that he believes he would not receive a fair hearing.
The FTX founder — now serving a 25-year sentence after his 2023 conviction on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy tied to the 2022 collapse of his crypto exchange — withdrew the motion after it was originally filed by his mother, Barbara Fried, who argued new evidence merited a reset. In his letter, Bankman-Fried said he may revive the request once his direct appeal and a related reassignment petition are resolved.
Bankman-Fried said he largely authored the Rule 33 motion himself while detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, with only limited help. “They made editorial and organizational suggestions, some of which I incorporated into the motion,” he wrote of consultations with his parents and lawyers. He also noted logistical assistance printing the filing because he “no longer had access to a word processor,” and that an earlier New York attorney consulted on the motion “had no significant input into the ultimate motion.”
A Rule 33 motion asks a federal court to grant a new trial based on newly discovered evidence or in the interest of justice. The decision to withdraw comes while Bankman-Fried’s direct appeal is pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. During November oral arguments there, his attorney Alexandra Shapiro argued the original trial had been “fundamentally unfair,” citing restrictions on what Bankman-Fried could present to jurors.
The withdrawal leaves the retrial avenue on pause for now and shifts attention back to the appeals process and the related reassignment request, outcomes that will determine whether a new trial motion is revived.
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