Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried did not overturn his fraud conviction and 25-year prison sentence related to FTX’s collapse after a three-judge appellate panel rejected his request for relief.

The unanimous ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan, New York, found that the government’s case against Bankman-Fried was, in the court’s words, “conservatively strong and solid,” it says Reuters.

Source: Toby Cunningham

“While he ‘publicly assured clients, investors and regulators’ that FTX client funds were safe, he simultaneously used FTX as his personal piggy bank and spent client funds on real estate, political contributions and investments,” U.S. District Judge Barrington Parker wrote.

The decision came after Bankman-Fried took a different route to contest his conviction. As Cointelegraph recently reported, he formally applied for a pardon for US President Donald Trump, and the application appeared in early June on the website of the Office of the Pardon Attorney of the US Department of Justice.

Bankman-Fried was sentenced in 2024 to 25 years in prison after being convicted of fraud and conspiracy stemming from FTX’s multibillion-dollar collapse.

Related: Sam Bankman-Fried increases support for Trump after Ellison’s release

Bankman-Fried’s pardon offer has a good chance

In a recent interview with Fox Business, Bankman-Fried said he was “absolutely” seeking a pardon from President Donald Trump. However, the former FTX CEO does not appear to have much support from the president.

In January, Trump told The New York Times that he had no plans to pardon Bankman-Fried. A White House spokesman also declined to comment on the clemency request. relating Last week, Bloomberg commented on the president’s previous statements.

Still, Trump has shown a willingness to issue high-profile pardons, including one for Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, shortly after returning to office.

Ulbricht operated the Silk Road murky web marketplace, which used Bitcoin as its primary payment method. He was serving two life sentences plus 40 years before Trump pardoned him in January 2025.

Related: FTX Fenwick & West law firm will pay $54 million to victims as part of the settlement