Jailed FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried isn’t backing down. The once high-flying crypto executive, now serving 25 years behind bars, is now seeking a fresh trial on the fraud charges that brought down his empire.
In a fresh court filing yesterday, 10th February 2026, in Manhattan’s federal court, Sam Bankman-Fried’s mother stepped in to submit the pro se motion on his behalf.
Attached was a detailed memo from FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried himself, where he levels serious accusations against the Department of Justice. He claims they suppressed critical information and even calls for the original trial judge, Lewis Kaplan, to step aside.
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The filing pulls no punches: Sam Bankman-Fried insists he was hit with bogus claims of stealing customer funds from the FTX exchange, supposedly wiping out billions.
“Since the trial, multiple people have come forward about how a weaponized DOJ pressured them to drop out as defense witnesses,” the documents argue.
This latest move comes after Sam Bankman-Fried already appealed back in November, though the Second Circuit hasn’t jumped on that yet. A New York jury nailed him in late 2023 on all seven counts of defrauding customers, lenders, and investors in what prosecutors branded one of the biggest scams of the decade.
His hedge fund, Alameda Research, played a central role in the whole FTX operation he built from the ground up.
The FTX founder has repeatedly said that FTX always had sufficient assets.
“FTX always had sufficient assets to repay customer deposits in full,” he writes in the new filing. He believes what hit was a classic bank-run panic or a short-term liquidity crunch, not true insolvency.
The motion spotlights what could have been game-changing testimony. FTX Digital Markets co-CEO Ryan Salame and former data science head Daniel Chapsky reportedly held back because they feared repercussions.
Had Chapsky taken the stand, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried says he would have dismantled the narrative of unrecoverable billions in losses.
Salame, meanwhile, planned to counter flashy prosecutor claims about private-jet lifestyles, insisting FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried actually despised flying private.
The Southern District U.S. Attorney’s Office hasn’t commented yet.
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s social media has been active
Meanwhile, Sam Bankman-Fried has been active on X lately (via proxy posts), drawing parallels between his situation and those of Ryan Salame, ex-Honduras president Juan Orlando Hernández, and even Donald Trump.
“Biden’s lawfare machine tried to silence the truth,” he posted.
“Because the truth is that they were playing politics, not justice. Same story with @realDonaldTrump; with @rsalame7926; with me; with @JuanOrlandoH; and with so many others.”
This saga from Sam Bankman-Fried is far from over. Here’s where you can read his full story.
