SBF Appeal Denied as Court Upholds 25-Year Sentence

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The ruling came from a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan. The panel sided with prosecutors and left the November 2023 verdict untouched.

What the Second Circuit Ruled

The panel affirmed all seven felony counts against the former FTX chief. Those counts include two wire fraud charges plus five related conspiracy counts.

Judges Barrington D. Parker Jr., Eunice C. Lee, and Maria Araujo Kahn signed the unanimous 42-page opinion, according to Reuters and the appellate docket. They also upheld the $11 billion forfeiture order set at sentencing.

The opinion did not mince words about the evidence. The government’s case, the panel wrote, was “conservatively stated, robust.” It called Bankman-Fried the “main driver of one of the largest frauds on record.”

That language echoed Judge Kaplan at sentencing. He said Bankman-Fried “knew what he was doing was wrong” and “made a very bad bet about the likelihood of getting caught.”

Why the SBF Appeal Was Denied

Bankman-Fried’s lawyers built the SBF appeal around claims that his trial was unfair. Lead appellate counsel Alexandra A.E. Shapiro argued that Judge Kaplan wrongly limited defense evidence.

Much of that fight centered on solvency. The defense wanted to argue that FTX was solvent rather than merely illiquid. In that telling, customer money was delayed rather than stolen.

The team also sought to introduce testimony about advice from FTX’s lawyers. That line of defense aimed to show Bankman-Fried believed his conduct was legal at the time.

The panel disagreed that Kaplan crossed a line. Instead, it found he “acted within his broad discretion” when he limited testimony that could confuse the jury.

The defense also accused Kaplan of bias. The court rejected that claim too, citing “very substantial evidence of guilt.” Extra testimony, the judges concluded, would not have changed the verdict.

How the Case Reached This Point

The collapse of FTX in November 2022 set everything in motion. Prosecutors say Bankman-Fried diverted roughly $8 billion in customer funds to his trading firm, Alameda Research.

Authorities arrested him in the Bahamas in December 2022 and extradited him soon after. His trial then ran through October and November 2023. Former lieutenants Caroline Ellison, Gary Wang, and Nishad Singh testified for the government.

All three cooperators had already pleaded guilty and agreed to help prosecutors. Their accounts anchored the government’s case at trial.

The jury convicted him on November 2, 2023. Kaplan then sentenced him on March 28, 2024, to 25 years plus the forfeiture. His team filed the notice of appeal days later, opening docket 24-961.

Oral arguments followed on November 4, 2025. The same panel pressed the defense hard that day, and Friday’s opinion reflected that skepticism.

What Legal Options SBF Has Left

Affirming a conviction simply means the appeals court found no error serious enough to order a new trial. For now, the verdict and the sentence both stand.

Bankman-Fried still has two narrow paths. He can ask the full Second Circuit for an en banc rehearing, or he can petition the U.S. Supreme Court for certiorari.

The two paths differ in important ways. An en banc rehearing would ask all active Second Circuit judges to revisit the panel’s work. A certiorari petition instead asks the Supreme Court to take the case, usually only when a legal question splits the circuits.

Neither path offers good odds. Courts rarely grant en banc review, and the Supreme Court accepts well under 2% of criminal petitions. A unanimous panel and fact-heavy arguments make success here even less likely.

Separately, Bankman-Fried has reportedly filed a pardon petition with the Trump administration. That request sits outside the courts and depends entirely on executive clemency.

FTX Customers Keep Getting Repaid

The legal fight has played out alongside a steady recovery for FTX creditors. A bankruptcy plan won approval in October 2024, and distributions have continued since.

The estate paid out a reported $2.2 billion round in March 2026. Many customers are now receiving roughly 118% to 119% of their November 2022 claim values, paid in fiat through approved channels.

Those repayments flow mostly through the FTX Recovery Trust rather than new on-chain transfers. Creditors can track each round through the official Kroll bankruptcy portal.

That recovery sits in sharp contrast to the criminal case. The courts have now closed the door on the trial, even as the estate keeps returning money to users.

What Comes Next for SBF

For now, the SBF appeal outcome leaves little doubt about his immediate future. Bankman-Fried remains in federal custody on a 25-year term that runs deep into the 2040s.

Any further filing would be a longshot, so a pardon stands as his only realistic off-ramp. The outcome also surprised few traders. The same panel had signaled its doubts at the November 2025 oral arguments.

Markets, in turn, barely flinched. Reporting noted no notable crypto price reaction, and the defunct FTT token showed no meaningful move. For most of the industry, the ruling simply confirmed what it already expected.