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The Walls Are Closing in on Sam Bankman-Fried

The FTX founder’s appeals for a new trial have fallen on deaf ears, and his mother’s intervention appears to have backfired. Now, with the Justice Department going nuclear and Republicans lining up to ensure Trump doesn’t issue a pardon, S.B.F. may be running out of chances to escape his fate.

Sam Bankman-Fried
Sam’s transparent efforts to get Trump to pardon him—heaping praise on the president to his one million followers on X, giving a jailhouse interview to Tucker Carlson, etcetera—seem to have pissed off members of Congress, specifically those anxious to legitimize cryptocurrency through new legislation untarnished by the FTX scandal. Photo: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg/Getty Images
William D. Cohan
March 18, 2026

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Nearly two years to the day since Sam Bankman–Fried was sentenced to a quarter-century in prison for fraud and conspiracy over the collapse of FTX, the former crypto wunderkind is still fighting for his freedom. Sam continues to insist that Lewis A. Kaplan, the federal judge in his 2023 criminal trial, was “one-sided” in his handling of the case—arguing in his appeal that it was clear Kaplan “did not like” Sam, “didn’t like his demeanor,” and was “coaching the prosecution on an argument to make.” The Second Circuit has yet to rule on his lawyers’ demand for a new trial with a different judge presiding.