SBF applied to the U.S. Supreme Court for a rehearing, seeking to overturn the $11 billion forfeiture order

The founder of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), has submitted a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court, requesting to overturn his fraud conviction and revoke the $11 billion forfeiture order. According to CNN, the petition was filed on September 10 local time, led by Alexandra A.E. Shapiro from the law firm Shapiro, Arato, Bach. SBF is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence.

The petition raises two core legal issues: first, when can the trial court admit evidence showing whether victims suffered losses, in cases where the prosecution uses a "fraudulent inducement" theory, meaning that it is irrelevant whether the victims suffered economic losses; second, does the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution allow for forfeiture or other criminal fines that destroy the defendant's future livelihood prospects? The defense argues that the trial court allowed the prosecution to imply that clients suffered massive losses while prohibiting the defense from presenting evidence that clients have been compensated, which constitutes an error.

The defense claims that although FTX and Alameda faced liquidity issues at one point, they always held sufficient assets to ultimately pay back investors and clients, and clients have now been repaid with both principal and interest. In 2023, SBF was convicted of multiple counts of fraud and money laundering, and in 2024, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $11 billion. In June of this year, a panel of the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the original ruling. The Supreme Court is expected to decide later this year whether to hear the case.