Sam Bankman-Fried’s Supreme Court Lawyer Tells the Sun Mogul Was ‘Deprived of a Fair Trial’

The appeal to the Supreme Court lodged by the fallen crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried aims to persuade the justices that he was “deprived of a fair trial,” the mogul’s lawyer, famed Supreme Court litigator Jeffrey Fisher, tells The New York Sun in an exclusive interview.Mr. Bankman-Fried’s petition for a writ of certiorari aims to reverse his seven convictions for fraud and conspiracy brought in by a federal jury in Manhattan in 2023. The guilty verdicts followed the implosion of Mr. Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, as well as his hedge fund, Alameda Research. In addition to a 25-year prison sentence without the prospect of parole, Mr. Bankman-Fried was ordered by Judge Lewis Kaplan to pay back $11 billion.Mr. Bankman-Fried turned to the Second United States appeals circuit. In June, that tribunal ruled that the “overwhelming evidence presented at trial proved that Bankman-Fried knowingly and intentionally committed large-scale fraud on FTX’s customers. While he was publicly reassuring customers, investors and regulators that FTX customer funds were safe, he was simultaneously using FTX as his own personal piggy bank.”Mr. Fisher, though, tells the Sun that, “Setting aside some of the public hysteria narrative, this was a highly unusual fraud prosecution.” While he acknowledges that high court precedent has held that a defendant can be convicted of fraud even if his victims are made whole — as FTX’s customers have been — Mr. Fisher maintains that, “This was an odd case where the prosecution’s theory was that he moved money around in a way that he shouldn’t have.”Mr. Fisher argues that the government introduced “distracting and misleading and prejudicial information.” In addition, the jurist did not allow Mr. Bankman-Fried to argue that “there were always more than enough assets available to repay customers (as they now have been repaid, with substantial interest).” Prosecutors contend that Mr. Bankman-Fried is guilty by virtue of his “misappropriating billions of dollars of those customers’ funds.”Mr. Fisher explains to the Sun that if the government presents a theory of fraud for which it is irrelevant if any victims lost money, Judge Kaplan’s ruling allowing the Department of Justice to introduce evidence indicating that people actually lost money is “distracting and misleading and prejudicial.” Mr. Bankman-Fried’s attorneys argued to the Second Circuit that their client was “never presumed innocent” and that he was “presumed guilty before he was even charged.”Mr. Bankman-Fried told the Sun last year — from prison — that “FTX was never insolvent and it was never bankrupt. Neither was Alameda. They always had enough to, to, to make good on all their liabilities.” The DOJ, though, maintains that he “orchestrated one of the largest financial frauds in history, stealing over $8 billion of his customers’ money.”Mr. Bankman-Fried’s petition to the Nine makes a separate argument — that the $11 billion Judge Kaplan ordered repaid violates the Constitution’s prohibition, in the Eighth Amendment, of “excess fines.” Mr. Fisher tells the Sun that even if his client was “guilty of a crime, punishing him by levying a fine to destroy his livelihood is unconstitutional.” The petition argues that the Second Circuit’s “approval of the crushing fine here also warrants this Court’s consideration” and that the protections enshrined in the national parchment date back to Magna Carta.President Trump triumphed on a similar Eighth Amendment claim last year when a New York state appellate court dismissed the $500 million civil fraud verdict levied against him by Judge Arthur Engoron as “excessive.” In a case from 1998, United States v. Bajakajian, the high court ruled that a fine is “excessive” under the Constitution if it is “grossly disproportionate to the offense.” At one point, there was speculation Mr. Bankman-Fried could be the world’s first trillionaire.Mr. Bankman-Fried has also applied for a pardon from President Trump. The website of the Office of the Pardon Attorney lists Mr. Bankman-Fried’s request for a “pardon after completion of sentence” as “pending.” In January, Mr. Trump declared that he had “no intention of pardoning” Mr. Bankman-Fried, who during his meteoric rise lavished campaign donations on Democrats.Securing an oral argument before the high court is difficult — of thousands of petitions annually, only about 60 are granted certiorari. Mr. Fisher, who has argued 50 cases before the Supreme Court, tells the Sun that he is “quite hopeful.”

Sam Bankman-Fried’s Supreme Court Lawyer Tells the Sun Mogul Was ‘Deprived of a Fair Trial’

Sam Bankman-Fried’s Supreme Court Lawyer Tells the Sun Mogul Was ‘Deprived of a Fair Trial’

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