Sam Bankman-Fried, former CEO of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, launched a new public campaign on the social media platform X. Bankman-Fried claims that she was targeted for political purposes with these posts and requests a new trial, claiming that there were irregularities in her trial.
Judicial Impartiality and Gag Order Claims
In his statements on X, Sam Bankman-Fried claims that both he and former US President Donald Trump were subject to a “gag order”, that is, a speech ban. He also claims that Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over the case, was biased and that prosecutors abused the law.
Court records show that the comparison does not reflect reality. Judge Kaplan only imposed restrictions on courtroom behavior in Donald Trump’s civil cases. The decision to ban public speech was made by other judges in different cases. In Bankman-Fried’s gag order decision, it is noted that he was punished for violating probation rules many times.
Discussions Regarding Financial Situation and Defense
Bankman-Fried argues that FTX has always been solvent and that claims of theft of customer funds are false. This argument was also one of the main defense points in the case against him; but the jury concluded that client assets were improperly used and that the company’s financial condition was misrepresented.
U.S. federal courts have also issued repeated decisions holding that assets recovered after the collapse of a financial institution do not necessarily mean that the institution was solvent at the time of the event.
Prosecutors and Political Allegations
In her posts, Bankman-Fried also claims that Trump fired one of his prosecutors in the case, former Southern District of New York prosecutor Danielle Sassoon. But public documents show Sassoon resigned voluntarily after failing to follow a Justice Department order in a separate case. There is no direct connection to Sassoon’s departure from the FTX case.
Apart from this, he claims that the Biden administration is acting against him because he opposes crypto regulations and donates to Republican parties. However, there is no official evidence in the case files that political donations or lobbying activities influenced the judicial process.
It is also among the records that the former CEO of FTX was one of the people who donated directly to Joe Biden in the US Presidential elections; Bankman-Fried donated more than $40 million to the Democracy Party in the 2022 elections.
It was also claimed that former FTX executive Ryan Salame was forced to accept some accusations and that evidence in his favor was concealed. Salame pleaded guilty to charges related to campaign financing and money transfer, and there was no evidence of illegal suppression of evidence in his favor during the court process.
