By Ovunc Kutlu
ISTANBUL (AA) – After getting a 25-year prison sentence, FTX founder and former CEO Samuel Bankman-Fried has filed an appeal over his fraud and conspiracy conviction that saw the collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange platform and a related hedge fund.
"He was presumed guilty by federal prosecutors eager for quick headlines. And he was presumed guilty by the judge who presided over his trial," his lawyer wrote in an appeal filed in the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
"He was presumed guilty – before he was even charged. He was presumed guilty by the media. He was presumed guilty by the FTX debtor estate and its lawyers," the appeal added.
Bankman-Fried, 32, faced multiple charges involving the implosion of FTX, which was once the world's third-largest crypto trading platform by daily volume, and its relation to hedge fund Alameda Research's trading accounts.
Last November he was found guilty by a jury in New York of all seven counts, and a forfeiture of $11.2 billion was ordered by Judge Lewis Kaplan.
The defunct cryptocurrency exchange platform FTX and its hedge fund Alameda Research agreed in August to pay $12.7 billion in a settlement with the US' Commodity Futures Trading Commission.