Sam Bankman‑Fried has withdrawn his bid for a new trial, telling the judge overseeing his case that he does not believe he would receive a fair hearing.
Bankman‑Fried — the founder of collapsed crypto exchange FTX, now serving a 25‑year sentence after being convicted on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy tied to FTX’s 2022 collapse — filed a letter saying he will pause the Rule 33 motion for now and may renew it once his direct appeal and a related reassignment request are resolved.
The original motion for a new trial was submitted by his mother, Barbara Fried, who argued that newly surfaced evidence warranted reopening the case. In his letter, Bankman‑Fried said he largely drafted the motion himself while detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, with only limited help. He acknowledged consulting his lawyers and his parents “since it concerns them both,” and said they offered “editorial and organizational suggestions” and assisted with printing because he lacked access to a word processor. He also shared earlier drafts with a New York attorney who had been initially retained to work on the Rule 33 motion but “they had no significant input into the ultimate motion,” he wrote.
A Rule 33 motion asks a federal court to order a new trial based on newly discovered evidence or in the interest of justice. Bankman‑Fried’s decision to withdraw for now comes as his appeal is pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. During oral arguments in November, his appellate attorney Alexandra Shapiro argued the trial had been “fundamentally unfair,” pointing to restrictions on what Bankman‑Fried could present to the jury.
With his Rule 33 motion on hold, the next legal milestones are the Second Circuit’s ruling on his appeal and the outcome of his request for reassignment. If those avenues do not produce a favorable result, Bankman‑Fried has signaled he could revive the motion for a new trial. The developments will be watched closely by the crypto community as the fallout from FTX’s collapse continues to reverberate across the industry.
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