Sam Bankman-Fried, who is currently serving a 25-year sentence for the FTX scam, alleged on Wednesday that the Justice Department under Joe Biden threatened key defense witnesses, preventing them from testifying that the exchange was solvent.
SBF Wants New Trial
Bankman-Fried, popularly known as SBF, filed a request for a new trial in a Manhattan court. The motion, filed on February 5, stated that Daniel Chapsky, former FTX head of partnerships, Ryan Salame, former FTX Digital Markets co-CEO, and Nishad Singh, former FTX engineering director, were “threatened” by the DOJ into silence or changing their statements.
“My conviction should be thrown out,” SBF said in an X post, referencing the excerpts from the motion.
SBF also targeted Judge Lewis Kaplan, the one who sentenced him to 25 years in prison, saying, “Judge Lewis Kaplan should recuse himself from this motion.”
Interestingly, Kaplan also presided over President Donald Trump’s federal defamation trial brought by writer E. Jean Carroll, leading SBF to position the …