Sam Bankman loses his appeal: The Federal Court confirms his conviction for fraud

This Friday, the federal court of appeals for the second circuit unanimously confirmed Sam Bankman-Fried’s conviction and his 25-year prison sentence for fraud. The judges dismissed all of his arguments, describing the government’s evidence as “strong.” For the fallen founder of FTX, the legal path is now closed.

In brief

• The federal court of appeals unanimously upheld the 25-year sentence imposed on Sam Bankman-Fried in 2023.
• The judges rejected the central defense argument: that FTX could have repaid its clients; fraud remains constituted as soon as false statements are used to extort money.
• SBF officially filed a presidential pardon request with the DOJ on June 8, 2026, his only remaining recourse.

Sam Bankman’s conviction withstands appeal

The decision rendered Friday by the Manhattan judges leaves no ambiguity. Bankman-Fried claimed that FTX remained solvent at the time of the facts and that his clients could have been fully repaid. This argument, however supported by FTX’s liquidation and actual repayments to creditors, did not convince the court.

The judges cited a 2025 Supreme Court ruling to decide. Fraud is constituted as soon as a “material false statement” is used to deceive victims and extort funds, whether or not the accused intends to cause a net loss.

However, Bankman-Fried falsified accounting documents to conceal the unauthorized use of FTX’s client funds, notably to cover losses at Alameda Research, his sibling hedge fund, and to finance real estate acquisitions and political contributions.

“Bankman-Fried does not meaningfully contest the substantial evidence gathered by the government during the trial“, the judges concluded.

Trump as last resort

The presidential pardon remains, at this stage, the only available lever. SBF formally submitted his request to the Pardon Attorney’s Office at the Department of Justice on June 8, 2026. The file is referenced as “pardon after completion of sentence”: the request does not seek early release, but the restoration of certain civil rights following the sentence.

Trump has already granted over 1,400 pardons since the start of his second term, including a full pardon for Changpeng Zhao, the former head of Binance, in October 2025. But the SBF case is of an entirely different political magnitude.

In January, the president declared to the New York Times that he did not intend to pardon Bankman-Fried. The White House has not changed its stance since.

FTT, FTX’s native token, surged about 50% intraday upon the announcement of the request. On Polymarket, the odds of a pardon range between 20% and 35%. These figures more reflect speculative market appetite than political reality.

In short, the SBF case illustrates the limits of solvency rhetoric as a defense against fraud charges. Document falsification suffices: this is what the US federal judiciary has ruled, in line with recent Supreme Court jurisprudence. 

Bankman-Fried is serving his sentence in a federal penitentiary in California, his legal recourse exhausted. Trump’s decision, whatever it may be, will take place in a context where the entire crypto sector closely watches the US administration’s clemency policy. Only one man now holds the keys.