Judge Rejects Sam Bankman-Frieds Bid for New Trial
A Manhattan federal judge has denied Sam Bankman-Frieds motion for a new trial, calling the request baseless and an apparent strategy to salvage his reputation. Bankman-Fried, the disgraced co-founder of collapsed crypto exchange FTX, is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence for fraud and money laundering charges. Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over Bankman-Frieds original trial in late 2023, issued the ruling on April 28, 2026. He dismissed claims of newly discovered evidence involving three former FTX executives—Ryan Salame, Daniel Chapsky, and Nishad Singh—stating that the defense already knew about these witnesses before the trial. Kaplan further criticized the motion as “wildly conspiratorial” and unsupported by the record. The request for a new trial had been unusual from the start. Bankman-Fried filed it in February 2026 without consulting his legal team, even as his appeal against his conviction and sentence remained pending. He later attempted to withdraw the motion after accusing Judge Kaplan of bias, a request the judge also denied. Bankman-Frieds legal troubles stem from the November 2022 collapse of FTX, once one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges. The platform crumbled after revelations that billions of dollars in customer funds were secretly transferred to Alameda Research, a trading firm also founded by