Sam Bankman-Fried Withdraws Motion for New Trial

Sam Bankman-Fried withdrew his Rule 33 motion for a new trial in a letter to U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, stating he may refile the request after a direct appeal and reassignment of the case. The filing was submitted from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

Bankman-Fried was convicted and in November received a 25-year prison sentence for defrauding FTX customers and investors. A Rule 33 motion asks a federal court to order a new trial based on newly discovered evidence or other grounds for reopening proceedings.

In the letter, Bankman-Fried said he authored the motion while in custody but consulted with his lawyers and his parents. He wrote that they “made editorial and organizational suggestions, some of which I incorporated into the motion,” and that they helped print the filing because “I no longer had access to a word processor.” He added that a New York attorney who had been hired to handle the Rule 33 motion “had no significant input into the ultimate motion.”

Bankman-Fried’s mother, Barbara Fried, previously filed a separate motion seeking a retrial, citing what she described as new information. Court filings show the defense focused on the evidentiary record and procedural issues from the original trial.

Online commentary included posts describing the withdrawal as an acknowledgment that the original verdict would stand and other posts calling it a publicity tactic.

Filings and valuations tied to FTX and related entities remain part of the legal record. Unrecovered assets in the FTX estate are reported at roughly $114 billion in value, with a large portion tied to an ownership stake in Anthropic valued at about $82.3 billion in recent tallies. Records show Alameda Research invested about $200,000 for roughly a 5 percent stake in an AI company now known as Cursor; at reported valuations of Cursor in recent partnership discussions, a 5 percent stake would be worth multiple billions of dollars.

Former President Donald Trump has stated he would not issue a pardon in Bankman-Fried’s case. Bankman-Fried remains in custody as he pursues post-conviction options. Withdrawing the Rule 33 motion does not prevent refiling after an appeal and reassignment of the case.