Sam Bankman-Fried to argue he was ‘presumed guilty’ after FTX in trial appeal

By Bob Van Voris Bloomberg Everybody was out to get Sam Bankman-Fried after the collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange in At least that s what his lawyers will tell an appeals court Tuesday as the FTX co-founder seeks to reverse his fraud conviction and -year prison sentence Bankman-Fried s lawyers claim he was wrongly convicted in a rush to judgment by the press prosecutors the crew that took over FTX in the wake of its stunning implosion and critically US District Judge Lewis Kaplan RELATED SBF s parents heartbroken for empathetic son who desired to do good on a large scale Sam Bankman-Fried was never presumed innocent his lawyers argued in a brief previously filed with the nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York He was presumed guilty before he was even charged A jury in Manhattan detected Bankman-Fried guilty in of seven criminal counts including fraud and conspiracy at his popular cryptocurrency exchange The trial was closely watched by the industry and by the broader populace making him the perceived face of greed and mismanagement in the domain for digital currencies The cabinet claimed Bankman-Fried siphoned billions of dollars from FTX customers to the exchange s sister hedge fund Alameda Research using the money for speculative investments political donations and expensive real estate Jurors exposed him guilty in less than five hours of deliberations despite watching him take the stand in his own defense and testify that he never intended to defraud anyone Now the three-judge panel is set to hear arguments from Alexandra Shapiro a top criminal appeals lawyer who has won reversals this year for three executives convicted of white-collar crimes She notched her majority of latest win on behalf of Iconix Brand Group founder Neil Cole who was cleared by the nd Circuit last week after his conviction on charges he inflated the apparel licenser s earnings and misled investors Shapiro is also working on appeals for music producer Sean Diddy Combs Bill Hwang of Archegos Capital and Charlie Javice who was convicted of defrauding JPMorgan Chase Co in the sale of her online student-finance site In their appeals briefs Bankman-Fried s lawyers focused on Kaplan who has been a federal court judge since They accused the judge of repeatedly putting a thumb on the scale to help the cabinet and thwart the defense They re asking for a new trial with a different judge Bankman-Fried s association argued that the judge pressured jurors into a quick verdict by suggesting they could stay late on the first day of deliberations offering them free dinner and a car function home His lawyers declared the judge continually ridiculed Bankman-Fried criticized his demeanor and signaled his disbelief of Bankman-Fried s testimony At one point Kaplan called Bankman-Fried s testimony that he didn t run Alameda after stepping down as the hedge fund s CEO a joke they revealed Viewers against Bankman-Fried included three former close FTX friends and executives his co-founder Gary Wang engineering chief Nishad Singh and Caroline Ellison Alameda CEO and Bankman-Fried s sometime girlfriend All three pleaded guilty to felony charges and took the stand to testify against Bankman-Fried in hopes of leniency Wang and Singh avoided prison while Ellison was sentenced to two years Ellison s testimony was particularly devastating She described in detail how she worked with Bankman-Fried to deceive lenders and customers and their failed attempts to stop FTX s slide into bankruptcy Ellison walked jurors through the seven alternative balance sheets she revealed she prepared at Bankman-Fried s direction to hide that billion had been borrowed from FTX customers and billion loaned to FTX executives and affiliated entities Bankman-Fried who s serving his sentence in California isn t expected to attend the hearing In addition to the appeal Bankman-Fried s parents have been exploring techniques to secure a pardon from President Donald Trump a person familiar with the matter commented earlier this year In March Bankman-Fried appeared on former Fox News host Tucker Carlson s podcast bashing former President Joe Biden and ex-Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler On Tuesday Shapiro is also expected to argue that Kaplan wrongly blocked Bankman-Fried from telling the jury that FTX had enough assets to repay exchange customers But prosecutors were allowed to claim Bankman-Fried had stolen billions of dollars forcing FTX into bankruptcy and causing billions in losses In addition to the prison time Kaplan ordered Bankman-Fried to pay back billion which is also part of the appeal Bankman-Fried didn t intend to defraud customers believing they d be fully repaid his organization argues Shapiro will also likely say that Kaplan should have let Bankman-Fried testify that he had followed the advice of FTX lawyers in good faith The judge directed Bankman-Fried to take the stand outside the jury s presence to preview his testimony on that point giving prosecutors an unfair advantage they claim More stories like this are available on bloomberg com Bloomberg L P