NEW YORK — Federal appeals court judges in Manhattan reacted skeptically Tuesday when a lawyer for once high-flying cryptocurrency entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried argued that his fraud conviction was unfair and should be overturned.
The attorney, Alexandra Shapiro, told a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the judge at his 2023 trial left the defense “cut off by the knees” by limiting what evidence it could present, particularly about advice he had received from lawyers.
Bankman-Fried, 33, is serving a 25-year-prison term after a jury found that he defrauded customers and investors of billions of dollars while he operated FTX, once the world’s second-largest crypto exchange.
The company collapsed into bankruptcy in November 2022 just months after it seemed to be thriving, with a Super Bowl advertisement and celebrity endorsements.
“Mr. Bankman-Fried’s trial was fundamentally unfair because the jury only got to hear one side of the story,” Shapiro said.
Circuit Judge Barrington D. Parker said his reading of the trial record found “very substantial evide