Judge Rejects Sam Bankman-Fried’s New Trial Request, Slams Claims as ‘Wildly Conspiratorial’

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan on Tuesday denied former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried’s pro se motion for a new trial, calling the arguments “baseless on multiple independently sufficient levels” and rejecting what the judge described as a calculated effort to relitigate facts the court had already considered and excluded.

Bankman-Fried filed the motion in February, representing himself and arguing that newly discovered evidence warranted a retrial. The filing pointed to potential testimony from former FTX Digital Markets co-CEO Ryan Salame and former FTX head of data science Daniel Chapsky, both of whom did not appear at his November 2023 trial. Bankman-Fried accused the Justice Department of using threats and retaliation to keep them from testifying on his behalf. Kaplan rejected that account.

This story is an excerpt from the Unchained Daily newsletter.

“He could have obtained or at least sought to compel their testimony,” Kaplan said. “But he did neither. His assertion that their absence was a product of government threats and retaliation is wildly conspiratorial and entirely contradicted by the record.”

Kaplan also refused Bankman-Fried’s April 22 request to withdraw the motion before the ruling came down, citing Bankman-Fried’s request to be able to refile, which he said is not usually the case.

The judge also flagged what he called a “plan to rescue his reputation” that Bankman-Fried hatched and committed to writing after FTX declared bankruptcy but before he was indicted, citing Google documents uncovered at sentencing that outlined a detailed post-indictment media strategy.

Bankman-Fried still has a pending appeal before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, where oral arguments were heard in November 2025. A separate request to have Kaplan removed from the case on bias grounds also remains pending.