FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Appeals Fraud Conviction to U.S. Supreme Court

Sam Bankman-Fried petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday to overturn his fraud conviction related to the collapse of FTX, following the high-profile pardons of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht and Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ).

Bankman-Fried is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence following his 2023 conviction. His legal team is also challenging an asset forfeiture order of approximately $11 billion.

The Supreme Court must first decide whether to accept the case. The court receives thousands of such petitions annually and agrees to hear arguments in only about 60 cases.

JUST IN: Sam Bankman-Fried has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn his 2023 fraud conviction and 25-year prison sentence.
SBF is now taking his case to the highest court in the U.S.
This could be a huge development for the FTX founder. pic.twitter.com/J75ckwPdMM

— That Martini Guy ₿ (@MartiniGuyYT) September 11, 2026

What Does the Petition from Sam Bankman-Fried Actually Challenge?

The petition challenges key aspects of the case against Bankman-Fried, including his conviction and the forfeiture order.

• The conviction: His lawyers argue that the trial court improperly prevented him from presenting evidence regarding whether FTX customers ultimately recovered their funds.
• The forfeiture order: The defense contends that the roughly $11 billion forfeiture is excessive under the Eighth Amendment.
• A separate pardon application: Online records from the Office of the Pardon Attorney list Bankman-Fried’s request for a pardon from President Trump as pending.

Bankman-Fried was convicted on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy after a month-long federal jury trial. In June, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the judgment.

The appellate court described the case as involving the cryptocurrency exchange FTX and Alameda Research, the cryptocurrency trading firm that Bankman-Fried operated and controlled.

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What Are SBF’s Lawyers Saying?

His lawyers have argued that FTX and Alameda held sufficient assets to repay customers and that the court’s limits on evidence regarding those assets deprived him of a fair trial. The petition highlights FTX’s bankruptcy plan, under which virtually all creditors were promised cash payments, including interest, to recover their losses.

Federal prosecutors maintained that FTX customers were defrauded through Bankman-Fried’s handling of their money, including the misappropriation of billions of dollars in customer funds. The Second Circuit noted that the government’s trial theory was that Bankman-Fried promised customers their funds would be secure on the platform and used only for cryptocurrency transactions, but instead transferred customer funds to Alameda and elsewhere for unauthorized purposes. The court affirmed the district court’s judgment.

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From Billionaire to Defendant: The Story of Sam Bankman-Fried

Bankman-Fried founded FTX in 2019 and grew it into one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges. The company’s rapid expansion brought him significant wealth and public prominence, making him one of the world’s youngest billionaires and a top Democratic donor.

FTX collapsed in 2022 after a run on deposits forced the firm into bankruptcy. Bankman-Fried was arrested later that year in the Bahamas, where he had been living, and was extradited to the United States to face trial. The Second Circuit’s account states that FTX filed for bankruptcy in November 2022 after it could not meet customer withdrawal requests.

Bankman-Fried has maintained his innocence. Prosecutors characterized the case as one of the largest financial frauds in history, alleging that he stole billions of dollars from FTX customers while presenting himself as a responsible philanthropist.

What Happens Next

The Supreme Court has not indicated whether it will take up Bankman-Fried’s petition. Its decision on whether to hear the case will determine whether the challenge receives further consideration.

The pending pardon application is a separate matter from the Supreme Court petition. The Office of the Pardon Attorney, a division of the Justice Department, lists the application as a request for a pardon after completion of sentence and marks it as pending.

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