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Last time I wrote about Sam Bankman Fried\u2019s ongoing effort to overturn his conviction for fraud and conspiracy, I wrote, \u201cAnyone willing to keep trying\u2014or to pay lawyers to keep trying for them\u2014can always do more legal busywork in pursuit of a favorable decision, all the way up to the Supreme Court if they want.\u201d<\/p>\n
And he has been doing that. Not just by paying lawyers to do it for him, either. He wrote his latest filings himself, with the help of his lawyer parents, according to Bloomberg, and they were rejected by Judge Lewis Kaplan, who oversaw the trial that led to his conviction. Bloomberg quotes the judge as saying SBF\u2019s self-authored motion, \u201cappears to be one part of a plan to rescue his reputation that Bankman-Fried hatched and even committed to writing after FTX declared bankruptcy but before he was indicted.\u201d<\/p>\n
That \u201cplan\u201d the judge seems to be talking about was a piece of evidence from 2022, released by the prosecution in 2024. When he wrote it, his business was in crisis, but he wasn\u2019t yet indicted, Bankman-Fried created a document with the heading \u201cthese are all random probably bad ideas that aren\u2019t vetted; CONFIDENTIAL.\u201d They included appearing on Tucker Carlson\u2019s TV show to come out as anti-woke and a Republican.<\/p>\n
That plan also included an idea that was part of his latest filing: to claim the FTX chapter 11 filing actually ruined some hidden liquidity that could have made his victims whole. In a filing last month, the prosecution called that claim \u201cfactually wrong, legally irrelevant, and deeply misleading.\u201d<\/p>\n
To refresh your memory, SBF was convicted of seven charges related to wire fraud and conspiracy. The claims of the prosecution were that billions of dollars were transferred from the relative safety of FTX customers\u2019 accounts to the more volatile Alameda Research, an FTX-related hedge fund. When crypto winter hit Alameda research, the value of much of those FTX investors\u2019 crypto was wiped out\u2014unless there was some hidden source of money.<\/p>\n
Bankman-Fried claimed in his latest filing that there were two newly discovered witnesses whose testimony would have backed up the secret liquidity narrative: former FTX executives Ryan Salame (who was also convicted) and Daniel Chapsky.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe proffered witnesses were fully known to the defense before trial, and are therefore not \u2018newly discovered,’\u201d the prosecution wrote last month.<\/p>\n
Apparently, SBF had actually said something to the effect of never mind before this ruling from Kaplan. Bloomberg says this ruling \u201ccame even after Bankman-Fried had asked to withdraw his request, claiming the judge wouldn\u2019t be fair in deciding it.\u201d But Kaplan also rejected that attempted withdrawal.<\/p>\n
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