FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried stands at the defense table to make a statement to U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan at Federal Court in New York City, U.S., March 28, 2024 in this courtroom sketch. REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg

By Jack Queen

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Lawyers for Sam Bankman-Fried, the FTX cryptocurrency exchange founder serving a 25-year prison sentence for fraud, will urge a federal appeals court on Tuesday to throw out his conviction.

A Manhattan federal jury found Bankman-Fried guilty of seven criminal charges in 2023 for stealing $8 billion from FTX customers in what prosecutors called a "fraud of epic proportions.” At his trial, Bankman-Fried admitted to making mistakes running FTX but testified that he never stole funds.

Bankman-Fried’s lawyers are expected to argue before judges of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the 33-year-old did not get a fair trial because the judge in the case did not allow evidence backing up Bankman-Fried's belief that FTX had enough funds to cover customer withdrawals.

Prosecutors have said in court filings that the evidence at trial, including testimony from three cooperating witnesses and troves of internal FTX documents, overwhelmingly proved Bankman-Fried’s guilt.

Bankman-Fried’s inner circle has been lobbying Trump for a pardon, according to media reports, but Trump has not publicly said whether he is considering one. Reuters has not independently confirmed the reports.

Bankman-Fried was a rising star in the rough-and-tumble crypto industry who burnished his reputation with lavish philanthropic and political donations before being charged in 2022.

During a monthlong trial in Manhattan federal court in late 2023, Bankman-Fried's lieutenants testified that he directed them to raid FTX customer funds to plug losses at Alameda Research, his crypto-focused hedge fund.

He was found guilty of two counts of fraud and five counts of conspiracy.

In sentencing Bankman-Fried in March 2024, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan said Bankman-Fried knew his actions were wrong but "made a very bad bet about the likelihood of getting caught."

Bankman-Fried had been serving his sentence at a low-security prison near Los Angeles. He is due for release in 2044.

(Reporting by Jack Queen and Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Stephen Coates)