SBF Petitions Supreme Court to Vacate FTX Fraud Conviction and $11B Forfeiture

The petition tests whether courts must allow defendants to present customer-loss evidence at trial and whether asset forfeitures tied to gross revenue rather than net loss violate constitutional...

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has filed a petition asking the United States Supreme Court to overturn his 2023 fraud conviction and vacate an $11 billion forfeiture order, according to reports from Decrypt and CoinTelegraph.

Bankman-Fried was convicted in November 2023 in the Southern District of New York on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy. A federal judge sentenced him to 25 years in prison in March 2024. The conviction centered on allegations that he misappropriated billions of dollars in customer funds from FTX and directed them to his affiliated trading firm, Alameda Research.

His legal team is advancing two principal arguments in the Supreme Court petition. First, they contend that the trial court improperly excluded evidence that FTX customers ultimately suffered no net losses, a line of defense that lawyers say was central to evaluating intent and harm. Second, they argue that the $11 billion forfeiture order is constitutionally excessive, describing it in court filings cited by Decrypt as a "crushing fine" that bears no proportionate relationship to actual losses proven at trial.

The forfeiture figure of $11 billion was calculated by prosecutors based on the volume of funds that passed through FTX and Alameda Research during the relevant period. Bankman-Fried's lawyers argue that forfeiture law requires courts to measure ill-gotten gains rather than gross flows, and that using the larger number effectively converts the order into a punitive fine subject to Eighth Amendment scrutiny against excessive penalties.

The evidentiary argument turns on trial rulings that barred the defense from presenting certain customer account data. Defense counsel argued that if customers were made whole through the FTX bankruptcy estate, the scale of harm alleged by prosecutors was overstated. The trial court ruled the evidence inadmissible on relevance grounds. Bankman-Fried's petition asks the Supreme Court to decide whether that exclusion violated his due process right to present a complete defense.

FTX filed for bankruptcy in November 2022, listing liabilities that at the time were estimated in the tens of billions of dollars. The bankruptcy estate, administered in Delaware, has since recovered substantial assets. As of mid-2025, the estate's reorganization plan indicated it would pay customers 100 cents on the dollar plus interest on their claims, a development Bankman-Fried's lawyers cite as evidence that the harm framing at trial was contested.

The Supreme Court accepts a small share of the petitions it receives each term. The Court agreed to hear roughly 60 to 80 cases per year in recent terms, out of approximately 7,000 to 8,000 petitions filed annually, according to Supreme Court public records. Whether the justices agree to take the case is unknown; the Court's decision on whether to grant certiorari would be the next public milestone.

For US investors and crypto market participants, the case carries implications beyond Bankman-Fried personally. A ruling on the evidentiary question could affect how federal prosecutors in future digital-asset fraud cases are permitted to frame customer harm, particularly in situations where bankruptcy proceedings recover funds after the alleged fraud occurs. A ruling on the forfeiture question could constrain the government's ability to seek asset recovery measured in gross transaction volume rather than net victim loss.

FTX was, at its peak, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges accessible to US retail investors, ranking among the top three globally by trading volume before its collapse in November 2022. Its failure triggered broader market declines across major cryptocurrencies listed on US exchanges, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, in the weeks following the bankruptcy filing.

No date has been set for the Supreme Court to consider the petition. The Department of Justice, which prosecuted the case, has not publicly commented on the filing as of September 11, 2026. What would clarify the timeline is a formal docketing notice from the Supreme Court and any response brief filed by the government.