Sam Bankman Fried Challenges The $11B FTX Forfeiture

Sam Bankman-Fried has filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn his fraud conviction and a forfeiture of $11 billion. The former FTX chief filed the petition on September 10, 2026.

Bankman-Fried is serving a 25-year prison sentence after a jury convicted him on seven counts of fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering for orchestrating a multibillion-dollar scheme to misappropriate customer funds and defraud investors and lenders. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld his conviction and sentence in June 2026, with its reasoning being direct: transferring customers' money through fraud does not become lawful because the defendant expects to return it.

The Evidence Argument

Bankman-Fried's lawyers say the trial court made an unfair evidentiary decision. Prosecutors were allowed to show that FTX customers lost money, while the defense says it was blocked from presenting evidence about FTX's assets, which the defense argues could have eventually repaid customers in full.

If prosecutors do not need to demonstrate economic loss to bring fraud charges under the fraudulent inducement theory the high court embraced in 2025, then Bankman-Fried argues defendants should be able to submit evidence working in the other direction. His attorneys emphasize that FTX's bankruptcy estate has successfully repaid all customers completely, including accrued interest.

The Forfeiture Challenge

His lawyers separately claim the $11.02 billion forfeiture violates the Eighth Amendment's Excessive Fines Clause. The defense raised a similar constitutional argument before the Second Circuit, which rejected it when affirming the conviction, sentence, and forfeiture. In United States v. Bajakajian, the Supreme Court held that punitive forfeitures fall within the Eighth Amendment's Excessive Fines Clause and violate it when grossly disproportionate to the offense, though a large dollar amount alone does not establish that violation.

Filing a petition does not give Bankman-Fried another trial or suspend his sentence. The Supreme Court must grant certiorari before the justices consider the merits, and four of the nine justices must vote to hear the case. The justices accept only a small proportion of the appeals presented to them.

Sources:
The Block: Sam Bankman-Fried asks Supreme Court to overturn fraud conviction and $11 billion forfeiture
CNN: Former crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried appeals conviction to Supreme Court
CoinTelegraph: SBF Seeks Supreme Court Review of Conviction, $11B Forfeiture