India, June 12 -- Sam Bankman-Fried, the former head of FTX, just hit a big legal roadblock. A federal appeals court decided to uphold his fraud conviction, keeping his 25-year prison sentence for his part in the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange.
A three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan brushed aside claims from Bankman-Fried's lawyers that his 2023 trial was unfair and that customers might have eventually been repaid thanks to the long-term value of FTX-related investments. The court found no reason to reverse the verdict, which came from one of the most closely followed financial fraud trials in recent years.
Judge Barrington Parker stated that the evidence against Bankman-Fried was o...