Sam "SBF" Bankman-Fried, former CEO of the crypto exchange FTX, has appealed against his conviction on seven felony counts and the subsequent 25-year prison sentence.
This move wasn't surprising, as his legal team revealed their plans to appeal shortly after Judge Lewis Kaplan handed down the sentencing on March 28.
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SBF's attorney, Alexandra Shapiro, filed a notice of appeal on April 11 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The basis for the appeal has not yet been disclosed.
Shapiro has also requested that Bankman-Fried stay at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn rather than be transferred to a federal prison in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The case will now move to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, where a panel of judges will review it to determine whether the original decision will stand or if there might be grounds for a retrial.
Community reactions to the sentence have varied, with many arguing it was too short considering the large scale of damage caused. Meanwhile, others, including industry analysts like James Seyffart, said 25 years was in line with what most legal experts expected.
SBF's conviction and sentencing resulted from a dramatic sequence of events that started with FTX's bankruptcy in November 2022. This led to Bankman-Fried's arrest for fraud in the Bahamas, extradition to the US, and a trial that concluded with a guilty verdict in November 2023.
In parallel, legal proceedings against other key figures from FTX and Alameda Research are also progressing. Ryan Salame, Caroline Ellison, Gary Wang, and Nishad Singh, who all have pleaded guilty and accepted plea deals, are scheduled for upcoming sentencing.
With this new update, the FTX saga continues to capture the attention of the crypto community worldwide, highlighting the industry's regulatory challenges.
