Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review his fraud conviction and 25-year prison sentence, launching what could be his final major legal challenge.
Bankman-Fried's lawyers filed a petition with the Supreme Court on Thursday, September 10, 2026, arguing that the trial court made significant errors that prevented him from presenting key evidence in his defense. The request comes after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld his conviction in June.
The Supreme Court has not agreed to hear the case. Like most petitions submitted to the court, Bankman-Fried's request faces significant odds of being rejected without oral arguments.
Bankman-Fried challenges 2023 conviction
Bankman-Fried was convicted by a federal jury in Manhattan in November 2023 after a four-week trial. The jury found him guilty on seven counts involving fraud and conspiracy connected to the operation of FTX and Alameda Research, the cryptocurrency trading firm he founded and controlled.
Prosecutors accused him of using billions of dollars in FTX customer funds to support Alameda's trading activities, make investments and finance an extravagant lifestyle while misleading customers and investors about the company's finances.
FTX collapsed in November 2022 after customers rushed to withdraw their money. The exchange subsequently filed for bankruptcy, exposing a multibillion-dollar shortfall and triggering investigations in the United States and other countries.
Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas in December 2022 and later extradited to the United States to face the charges.
He has maintained his innocence and continued to challenge the government's case against him.
What his lawyers are arguing
One of the central arguments in the Supreme Court petition concerns evidence that Bankman-Fried's lawyers say he should have been allowed to present at trial.
According to the petition, his defense wanted to show that FTX had enough assets to ultimately repay its customers and that customers did not suffer permanent losses as a result of his conduct. His lawyers argue that the trial court improperly prevented him from introducing evidence supporting that position.
The argument has become more significant following FTX's bankruptcy proceedings. Under the bankruptcy plan, virtually all FTX creditors were promised cash distributions designed to recover the money they were owed, along with interest.
Bankman-Fried's lawyers contend that this later recovery should have been relevant to the jury's consideration of whether customers actually suffered losses.
Federal prosecutors have taken a different position. They have argued that Bankman-Fried's alleged misuse of customer funds constituted fraud regardless of whether customers were eventually able to recover their money through bankruptcy proceedings.
In other words, the government's position is that subsequent repayment does not erase the alleged criminal conduct.
$11 billion forfeiture also challenged
Bankman-Fried is also challenging the approximately $11 billion forfeiture imposed against him.
His lawyers have argued that the forfeiture represents an excessive financial punishment and conflicts with constitutional protections against excessive fines.
The forfeiture was imposed separately from his 25-year prison sentence.
The Supreme Court petition therefore seeks to reopen major aspects of the case, including both the underlying conviction and the financial penalties attached to it.
Appeals court previously rejected his arguments
The Supreme Court petition follows a significant defeat for Bankman-Fried earlier this year.
On June 12, 2026, a three-judge panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously affirmed the district court's judgment. The appeals court rejected his challenge to the conviction and sentence, leaving the 25-year prison term in place.
The appellate court said the jury had found Bankman-Fried guilty of seven counts related to fraud and conspiracy arising from his operation of FTX and Alameda.
The decision meant that Bankman-Fried's next avenue for challenging the conviction was the Supreme Court.
His latest filing therefore represents an attempt to persuade the nation's highest court that his case raises sufficiently important legal questions to warrant review.
Supreme Court faces thousands of petitions
There is no guarantee that the Supreme Court will hear the case.
The justices receive thousands of petitions each year but agree to hear only a small fraction of them. The New York Times reported that the court typically hears arguments in roughly 60 cases during a term.
For Bankman-Fried, the practical consequence is significant. If the Supreme Court declines to hear his petition, his 2023 conviction and 25-year sentence will remain in place unless another extraordinary legal avenue becomes available.
A decision to grant review would not mean that the Supreme Court had found him innocent. It would simply mean that the justices had determined that the legal issues raised in his petition deserved consideration.
FTX collapse changed the cryptocurrency industry
Bankman-Fried's legal battle stems from one of the most dramatic corporate collapses in the cryptocurrency industry's history.
FTX had grown rapidly after its founding in 2019. Bankman-Fried became one of the most recognizable figures in crypto and was once among the world's youngest billionaires.
The company attracted millions of customers and developed a major presence in the digital-asset market. Bankman-Fried also became a prominent political donor and cultivated relationships with politicians, celebrities and business leaders.
That reputation collapsed within days in November 2022.
Concerns about the financial relationship between FTX and Alameda Research triggered a rush of withdrawals. FTX could not meet customer demands, and the company sought bankruptcy protection.
The collapse led to investigations into how customer funds were handled and whether Bankman-Fried and other executives had misled customers, lenders and investors.
His eventual conviction became one of the most consequential criminal cases arising from the cryptocurrency boom.
Bankman-Fried remains in prison
Bankman-Fried is currently serving his 25-year federal sentence.
The Supreme Court petition is not an automatic suspension of that sentence. Unless a court grants relief, he remains subject to the judgment entered against him.
His legal team has also pursued other avenues for relief. Separately, Bankman-Fried has reportedly submitted a request for a presidential pardon, although that process is distinct from his Supreme Court challenge. The Justice Department's Office of the Pardon Attorney lists the request as pending.
The Supreme Court petition and pardon application therefore represent separate potential routes through which Bankman-Fried could seek a change to his legal situation.
What happens next
The Supreme Court will first decide whether to consider Bankman-Fried's petition.
If the justices reject the request, the Second Circuit's decision affirming his conviction will remain the controlling judgment.
If the court agrees to hear the case, both sides would have an opportunity to submit further legal arguments before the justices ultimately decide whether the conviction, sentence or other parts of the judgment should be disturbed.
For now, however, Bankman-Fried remains convicted and imprisoned.
His latest filing does not overturn his conviction. It is instead an attempt to persuade the Supreme Court to take up his case after the federal appeals court rejected his challenge.
The development marks another chapter in the long-running legal aftermath of FTX's collapse and keeps one of the cryptocurrency industry's most consequential criminal cases before the U.S. judiciary.
