Sam Bankman-Fried Files Appeal For Fraud Conviction (cointelegraph.com)
- Reference: 0174991567
- News link: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/09/13/2111209/sam-bankman-fried-files-appeal-for-fraud-conviction
- Source link: https://cointelegraph.com/news/sam-bankman-fried-appeal-fraud-conviction-sentence
> In a Sept. 13 filing in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, SBF's lawyers filed a 102-page brief claiming that the former FTX CEO was "never presumed innocent," subject to scrutiny that allegedly affected prosecutors, the presiding judge, and treatment by the media. Bankman-Fried's legal team announced in April -- a few weeks after a federal judge sentenced him to 25 years in prison -- that they intended to appeal. According to the appeal, SBF's lawyers alleged the jury was "only allowed to see half the picture" with FTX user funds, claiming prosecutors had "presented a false narrative" that the money was permanently lost and Bankman-Fried intentionally caused that loss. They also claimed that counsel for the FTX debtors worked with the US government in a way that was above and beyond "cooperation," providing information allegedly as an "arm of the prosecution."
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> "From day one, the prevailing narrative -- initially spun by the lawyers who took over FTX, quickly adopted by their contacts at the US Attorney's Office -- was that Bankman-Fried had stolen billions of dollars of customer funds, driven FTX to insolvency, and caused billions in losses," said the appeal. "Now, nearly two years later, a very different picture is emerging -- one confirming FTX was never insolvent, and in fact had assets worth billions to repay its customers. But the jury at Bankman-Fried's trial never got to see that picture." The legal team requested the appellate court grant SBF a new trial with a different judge. It's unclear whether the Second Circuit could rule to affirm Bankman-Fried's conviction in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York or reverse the decision and set the groundwork for a new trial.
[1] https://cointelegraph.com/news/sam-bankman-fried-appeal-fraud-conviction-sentence
[2] https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/03/28/1552210/sam-bankman-fried-sentenced-to-25-years-in-prison
I'm confused (Score:3)
Isn't a prosecutor supposed to be biased?
Re: (Score:1)
Yes. He only is to be presumed innocent by the jury. He probably has MAGA lawyers.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, the prosecutor is supposed to be biased, you don't want a prosecutor prosecuting people he/she thinks are innocent.
However, the prosecutor is still required to turn over ALL evidence to the defense counsel, even that which might cast doubt on the defendant's guilt. If the prosecutor screws up that is usually where it happens. They withhold something that would weaken their case or something they think is irrelevant but actually would be useful to the defense.
Re: (Score:2)
No, but that's because prosecutorial bias has a different definition in the legal sense than in the sense of just regular old "bias".
It relates to [1]Prosecutorial Discretion [wikipedia.org]. It is the prosecutor that charges someone with a crime, and they generally have wide latitude. However they do have certain requirements to make a charge, such as they have to have some sort of evidence to support the charge. Usually prosecutorial bias comes in when the evidence is flimsy, but they're going to charge someone becaus
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosecutorial_discretion
nice try though (Score:4, Insightful)
"...FTX was never insolvent, and in fact had assets worth billions to repay its customers."
Of course, CRIME part wasn't about it being out of money.
The crime part was having a private backdoor into invested funds to use as your own slush / political donation fund.
The fact that he hadn't actually bankrupted the fund is fairly immaterial.
Re: (Score:1)
Actually it does apply. SBF had charges of Fraud, Conspiracy to commit fraud, and money laundering.
If FTX wasn't as insolvent as originally thought and it actually had capital to cover it's debts to a greater extent than was portrayed, then the fraud charges come into question, which could lessen his sentence. At least that appears to be the strategy for his lawyers.
This is not news (Score:3)
Appeals are completely normal. In white collar crime they are so common that it might as well be automatic.
If he didn't appeal that would be news. Heck, he might be able to sue his lawyers or make the appeal about incompetent legal representation.
Move on, there's nothing to see here.
What the hell else is he gonna do? (Score:3)
He's in the pokey for 25 years, and there's no federal parole so he's going to eat the full meal. What the hell else would you expect other than to see if he can get those years back by launching appeals to any court that will listen to the petition?
This is what long-term incarcerated people do.
There is something weird about his conviction... (Score:3)
There is something weird about his conviction. Two of the biggest crypto platforms in the world both blew up in a flurry of criminality which ended up with federal charges being filled around the same time, FTX and Binance.
The FTX case was entirely about embezzlement, non-violent theft. Sam Bankman-Fried ripped off his investors. He was sentenced to 25 years.
The Binance case was an entirely different beast. Their founder wasn't stealing money, he was laundering it for violent, transnational criminal organizations. They found evidence that Binance deliberately helped members of drug cartels, North Korean hackers and sanctioned Russian mobsters circumvent local laws to access their platform. Changpeng Zhao, the founder of Binance, made himself a part of global supply chains for violence and extortion. And this isn't my opinion, this is the DOJ's opinion (https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/binance-and-ceo-plead-guilty-federal-charges-4b-resolution). CZ was offered a plea deal and received a 4 month sentence.
The discrepancy between those two sentences makes SBF's sentence see cruel and unusual. It's my personal opinion that SBF's prosecution is everything wrong with our justice system. The media has been reporting that FTX's customers will get all their money back so what did SBF really do that was so bad to warrant a 25 year sentence? He made Sequoia and all the other brain-dead tech VC's look real stupid. They all poured money into a fake business with no product. Sequoia used to bring us companies like Apple and Oracle but their recent history includes FTX and Bitclout, two companies that ended in federal indictments. But these companies didn't "break bad", they never had a product. They were obviously committing fraud at the time that Sequoia invested in them.
As far as I can tell SBF's prosecution was done for the benefit of Sequoia Capital. They need the public to believe that SBF is some kind of outlying criminal mastermind so they can maintain plausible deniability of the underlying criminality of their investments in crypto.
Re: (Score:3)
I’m gonna guess that the Binance guy played ball. He gave up everything the justice department and the FBI and CIA wanted. Answered all their questions. Spilled the beans on all the hidden accounts, shady deals, secret passwords and criminal buddies. And then agreed to admit guilt in public and take his lumps. In exchange for a much lighter sentence.
SBF played the “Trump card”: admit nothing, give nothing, fight tooth and nail every step of the way, and generally be as unhelpful and un
Re: (Score:2)
He also contributed to the GOP.
Re: All he did was ensure Dems were in office in 2 (Score:1)
From what I heard, the extradition process was rushed... so it ended up various other charges could not be brought for other crimes he committed. This wad either incompetence.... or a cover up for others.