Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has lost his latest appeal to overturn his fraud conviction and 25-year prison sentence, while continuing to claim that he did not commit fraud.
According to The Guardian, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit rejected his challenge to the conviction and sentence. Bankman-Fried was found guilty of seven felony counts in November 2023 after prosecutors accused him of misusing billions of dollars in customer funds.
Now, nearly three years after his conviction, the former crypto billionaire remains in federal prison. He is eligible for release in 2044, according to reports.
The case followed the collapse of FTX in November 2022, when customers, investors and lenders faced billions of dollars in losses. Prosecutors said Bankman-Fried used money entrusted to his exchange to cover losses at Alameda Research, his cryptocurrency trading firm.
Sam Bankman-Fried, co-founder of FTX Cryptocurrency Derivatives Exchange, leaves court in New York, US, on Wednesday, July 26, 2023.Photo by: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Bankman-Fried was convicted in a Manhattan federal court in November 2023 on seven counts involving fraud and conspiracy. The charges covered the misuse of customer funds and lies to investors and lenders.
Prosecutors said around $8 billion in customer money was taken from FTX, per AP News. During the March 2024 sentencing, the court also addressed losses suffered by investors and lenders, bringing the total financial impact cited in the case to about $11 billion.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan sentenced Bankman-Fried to 25 years in prison in March 2024. Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of 40 to 50 years, while his defense team sought a much shorter term.
At sentencing, Kaplan said Bankman-Fried knew his actions were wrong but “made a very bad bet about the likelihood of getting caught”.
Bankman-Fried had pleaded not guilty. During his trial, he admitted making mistakes while running FTX but denied stealing customer funds.
Three former executives who worked closely with him testified for the prosecution after pleading guilty to related crimes and agreeing to cooperate. They said Bankman-Fried directed them to use FTX customer money to cover losses at Alameda Research.
Bankman-Fried’s lawyers argued on appeal that the trial judge improperly blocked evidence that could have supported his belief that FTX had enough money to meet customer withdrawals. Prosecutors argued that testimony and other evidence at trial clearly supported the conviction.
The appeals court rejected his challenge, leaving both the conviction and 25-year sentence in place.
In an October 2026 interview with The Economist’s podcast, Bankman-Fried continued to describe FTX as a legitimate business that failed after a run on its funds. He said: “Parties adverse to the company and stakeholders took control. When I needed to fight that, I was weak instead.”
His lawyers have also challenged the roughly $11 billion forfeiture tied to the case on constitutional grounds. They are pursuing a petition before the U.S. Supreme Court and have sought a presidential pardon from Donald Trump, according to the October report.
A pardon remains uncertain. Bankman-Fried told the podcast that obtaining one was “an uphill battle.”
FTX was once one of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges, and Bankman-Fried was widely known in the crypto industry. The company’s collapse in 2022 ended his rise as a major figure in digital finance and led to one of the most closely watched financial fraud cases in recent years.
For now, his conviction and prison sentence remain in place, while further legal efforts continue.
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