2nd Circuit Unanimously Upholds Sam Bankman-Fried's Fraud Conviction and 25-Year Sentence

Since FTX collapsed in November 2022 and Bankman-Fried was convicted on seven felony counts in November 2023, the legal machinery has been moving steadily against him. On Friday, June 12, 2026, it moved again.

A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan voted unanimously to affirm Bankman-Fried's fraud conviction and his 25-year prison sentence, according to the New York Post. Circuit Judge Barrington Parker wrote the opinion.

What the Court Said

Parker did not mince words. The prosecution's evidence was, in his framing, "conservatively stated, robust."

The panel's core finding: while Bankman-Fried was publicly reassuring FTX customers, investors, and regulators that their funds were safe, he was simultaneously using the exchange as his "own personal piggy bank" by spending customer deposits on real estate, political contributions, and investments, per the New York Post's account of Parker's written opinion.

The defense's main appellate argument was that U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan improperly blocked evidence that Bankman-Fried believed FTX had sufficient funds to cover customer withdrawals at all times. Such evidence could have undercut the intent element of the fraud charges.

The appeals panel rejected it on settled legal grounds. Under established precedent, fraud is complete the moment a defendant induces someone to hand over money or property through deception. The defendant's private belief that he could eventually make victims whole is legally irrelevant to whether the fraud occurred.

The Strongest Defense Argument

Bankman-Fried's lawyers raised a legitimate procedural concern. Restricting a defendant's ability to present his own state of mind at trial is a real issue in fraud cases where intent is disputed. If Kaplan's evidentiary rulings were genuinely overbroad, an appellate reversal would have been warranted regardless of how bad the underlying conduct looked.

The 2nd Circuit concluded those rulings were not overbroad. The panel found the excluded evidence would not have changed the legal outcome given the intent standard that applies, and the remaining trial record was more than sufficient to support the jury's verdict.

What Comes Next

Bankman-Fried's lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment, per the New York Post. They have two procedural paths left.

First, they can request an en banc rehearing, meaning all active judges on the 2nd Circuit would review the case rather than just a three-judge panel. That request is rarely granted.

Second, they can petition the U.S. Supreme Court for certiorari. The Supreme Court accepts a small fraction of the cases presented to it, and reversals of unanimous circuit court rulings on well-settled fraud law are uncommon.

The more politically charged avenue is the pardon route. According to the New York Post, Bankman-Fried has submitted a pardon application to the Justice Department's Office of the Pardon Attorney and is seeking clemency from President Trump. Neither the White House nor the Justice Department responded to requests for comment as of the time of publication.

That pardon request sits in unusual territory. Bankman-Fried was a major Democratic donor before FTX's collapse. Prosecutors noted political contributions among the items he funded with customer money. Whether the Trump administration grants any weight to that application is an open question with no public answer yet.