Sam Bankman-Fried petitions Supreme Court to void FTX conviction and $11B fine

Sam Bankman-Fried has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn his fraud conviction and void an $11 billion forfeiture order. This filing represents the final stage of his direct appeals process following his 2023 conviction related to the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX.

His legal team, led by attorney Jeffrey Fisher, argues that the $11 billion penalty violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on excessive fines. Fisher contends that the judgment is a money order for a sum Bankman-Fried does not possess and that it would effectively leave him in permanent poverty, preventing him from ever earning a living again. The defense argues that such a penalty contradicts legal principles intended to ensure a wrongdoer is not stripped of all future earning capacity.

Bankman-Fried was previously sentenced to approximately 25 years in prison for crimes involving the theft of billions of dollars in customer funds. While the Supreme Court typically hears only a small fraction of petitions, the case remains a significant focal point for the cryptocurrency industry and ongoing bankruptcy proceedings aimed at repaying FTX creditors.