A federal appeals court unanimously upheld Sam Bankman-Fried's 25-year prison sentence on June 12, 2026, closing his last judicial avenue out of prison. The ruling by a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ends more than three years of legal proceedings tied to the collapse of FTX.
Customer losses from the FTX collapse exceeded $8 billion. The panel described the prosecution's evidence as "conservatively stated, robust" and found no grounds to disturb the verdict or the sentence on any of the points raised by the defense.
What the court found
Circuit Judge Barrington Parker authored the opinion. He laid out the core scheme plainly: while Bankman-Fried was publicly reassuring customers and regulators that FTX funds were safe, he was directing those funds toward real estate purchases, political campaign contributions, and private investment deals.
"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, spending customer funds on real estate, political contributions, and investments."
- Circuit Judge Barrington Parker, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, June 12, 2026
The defense challenged the admissibility of certain evidence, the order of witness testimony, and the jury instructions on fraud counts. The panel rejected each argument. A separate line of appeal disputed the loss calculation, with attorneys claiming prosecutors overstated customer harm. The court declined to revisit the methodology and affirmed the $8 billion-plus figure.
Timeline and figures
On November 2, 2022, CoinDesk published an analysis of Alameda Research's balance sheet, the trading arm affiliated with FTX. It revealed that a large portion of the firm's assets consisted of FTT tokens issued by FTX itself. That report triggered a bank run. Binance briefly announced plans to buy FTX, then walked away after reviewing the size of the shortfall. Within three days, FTX halted withdrawals and filed for bankruptcy, leaving customers with a gap of more than $8 billion.
Bankman-Fried faced two separate criminal trials. The first ended in October 2023 with a guilty verdict on seven counts. A second trial was later dropped. Judge Lewis Kaplan imposed the 25-year sentence in March 2024.
Why the appeal failed
Much of the first trial rested on testimony from cooperating witnesses: former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang. The defense argued their accounts lacked credibility given the cooperation deals they had struck with prosecutors. The appeals court rejected this, noting both witnesses underwent full cross-examination and that jurors were free to weigh their reliability independently.
A separate challenge targeted jury instructions on wire fraud and securities fraud. The defense argued the instructions swept too broadly. The panel disagreed, finding them consistent with 2nd Circuit precedent.
Trump pardon: the odds
With every judicial option exhausted, Bankman-Fried's only remaining path is a presidential pardon. His formal application appeared on the U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Pardon Attorney website in early June 2026. Filing such a petition is open to any federal convict, but the decision rests entirely with the president.
Trump's stated position is clear. In a January 2026 interview with The New York Times, he said he had no plans to pardon the FTX founder. The White House press office declined further comment. In a Fox Business interview, Bankman-Fried said he was "absolutely" seeking a pardon, without identifying any concrete basis for that confidence.
His political history complicates the request. Bankman-Fried directed over $100 million in contributions ahead of the 2022 midterms, mostly to Democratic candidates and aligned causes. Investigators found that some of those funds traced back to FTX customer accounts. Trump's team has publicly tied those donations to Democratic allies on multiple occasions, making any pardon a politically costly move.
The Ulbricht precedent and why it falls short
Some supporters point to Ross Ulbricht as a relevant precedent. In January 2025, Trump pardoned the founder of Silk Road, the dark-web marketplace that operated via Bitcoin. Ulbricht had been serving two life sentences plus 40 years for drug trafficking and money laundering.
The comparison breaks down under scrutiny. The campaign for Ulbricht's release ran for over a decade and built a significant following in libertarian and crypto circles. Trump personally referenced the Ulbricht case in 2024 campaign speeches, well before taking office. Bankman-Fried has no comparable grassroots backing and no promise from Trump's campaign record linked to his case.
Conclusion
The 2nd Circuit ruling closes the legal chapter on Bankman-Fried's case. From the November 2022 collapse through extradition, two trials, and now an appeal, courts have affirmed the conviction at every stage.
Markets barely moved on the news, which had been widely expected. The longer-term significance is regulatory: the case showed that the U.S. Department of Justice can successfully prosecute a well-resourced crypto executive through a full jury trial and appellate review. After FTX's collapse, several large exchanges adopted public proof-of-reserves practices, and regulators in multiple jurisdictions cited the case when pushing for stronger licensing requirements. Future enforcement actions in the sector will play out against that backdrop.
Comments
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *