PANews reported on November 4th that, according to Bloomberg, FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried filed for appeal on Tuesday to overturn his fraud conviction and 25-year prison sentence. His lawyers argued that after the cryptocurrency exchange crash in 2022, the media, prosecutors, and others sought to bring him down, and that Judge Lewis Kaplan's hasty conviction led to his wrongful conviction, stating that SBF was "presumptively guilty even before being indicted." In the appeal brief, the lawyers focused on 80-year-old Judge Kaplan, accusing him of "repeatedly favoring the government and obstructing the defense," and demanding a retrial and a different judge. SBF's team argued that the judge pressured juries by suggesting they work overtime, providing free dinners and home transportation, and by constantly mocking SBF and questioning his testimony. SBF, currently serving a sentence in California, is not expected to attend the hearing.

Furthermore, according to a source familiar with the matter earlier this year, SBF's parents had been exploring ways to obtain a pardon from US President Trump. On Tuesday, lawyer Shapiro also anticipated arguing that the judge wrongly prevented SBF from informing the jury of FTX's solvency, while allowing the prosecution to charge him with embezzlement leading to bankruptcy. SBF's team emphasized that he had no intention of deceiving his client and that the judge should have allowed him to testify that he had consistently acted on the advice of FTX's lawyers.