Notorious cryptocurrency huckster Sam Bankman-Fried is angling for a new trial on all the fraud counts that netted him a 25-year prison sentence, while his parents are angling to get Trump to give their rich-kid son a pardon.

Hillsborough native Sam Bankman-Fried became the face of cryptocurrency fraud in late 2022 when his crypto platform FTX collapsed financially, and he was arrested on fraud and money laundering charges. The CEO and founder known by his initials SBF was found guilty on seven counts of fraud for “disappearing” about $10 billion in customer funds into the company’s separate hedge funds to blow on real estate and other crypto investments, and was sentenced to 25 years in prison in early 2024.    

And Bankman-Fried had to be seething last month when President Trump pardoned his fellow crypto money-launderer Changpeng “CZ” Zhao of the rival platform Binance. Zhao’s Binance had just poured $2 billion into Trump’s sham crypto firm, making the whole transaction a pretty obvious bribe.


So now Sam Bankman-Fried is trying to play his own “Get Out of Jail” cards. Bloomberg reports that Bankman-Fried’s appeal hearings are underway today, though Bankman-Fried himself is not likely to be at them. But he's got a high-powered corporate appellate lawyer in Alexandra Shapiro, who it so happens will also represent Sean “Diddy” Combs's appeal.

That has a funny irony to it, since SBF and Diddy were famously in the same jail unit for a time, a coincidence explored in the recent community theater satirical romp Luigi: The Musical.

But Bankman-Fried’s lawyers are sounding a more somber note, claiming he did not get a fair trial.

“Sam Bankman-Fried was never presumed innocent,” lawyers argued in an appeal brief, according to Bloomberg. “He was presumed guilty — before he was even charged.”

The gist of their argument is that in SBF’s previous trial, US District Judge Lewis Kaplan put his thumb on the scales to secure convictions. They claim that on the bench, Judge Kaplan “continually ridiculed Bankman-Fried, criticized his demeanor, and signaled his disbelief of Bankman-Fried’s testimony.”

This does not take into account that there was awfully damning testimony from Bankman-Fried’s occasional poly romantic partner Caroline Ellison, who testified that he personally directed her to create “alternative balance sheets” for FTX to intentionally fool customers into not realizing that around $10 billion of theirs was missing.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg also reports that Bankman-Fried’s wealthy Stanford professor parents are "exploring ways to secure a pardon from President Donald Trump." Notably, Bankman-Fried went on Tucker Carlson's show from jail, and has been doing the obligatory “Oh, Biden was terrible, I’m a Republican now” schtick. So that may help grease those pardon skids.

But Bloomberg also reports that SBF’s appeal is also seeking to reverse the order that he have to pay $11 billion in restitution repayment. If the Bankman-Fried family wants Trump to undo that part of the sentence, they’d better be ready to buy a whole note of worthless Trump crypto coins.

Related: Disgraced FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Sentenced to 25 Years [SFist]

Image: NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JUNE 15: FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried arrives at Manhattan Federal Court for a court appearance on June 15, 2023 in New York City. A court in the Bahamas temporarily barred the country’s government from agreeing to let US prosecutors pursue part of their criminal case against Bankman-Fried this week due to them being added after his agreed extradition. The Justice Department in a filing informed Judge Lewis Kaplan that it will only try Bankman-Fried on the original eight counts mentioned in the original indictment that includes wire fraud, securities fraud, money laundering, and campaign finance fraud. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)