U.S. appeals court skeptical of SBF's request to overturn cryptocurrency fraud convictions

ChainCatcher news, according to Reuters, on Tuesday, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals expressed skepticism regarding SBF's appeal. His lawyers argued that the previous trial for the FTX fraud case was unfair, and therefore the 25-year sentence against SBF should be overturned.

During the appeal hearing, a panel of three judges raised questions about key issues: Would the evidence excluded from the previous trial have affected the jury's guilty verdict? Circuit Judge Maria Araujo Kahn questioned SBF's lawyer, asking whether not challenging the sufficiency of the evidence was equivalent to admitting that the evidence was enough for conviction. The lawyer responded that even if the evidence was sufficient, procedural errors by the trial judge still affected the fairness of the trial. Prosecutor Nathan Rehn pointed out that the existing evidence was sufficient to prove that SBF stole customer funds. SBF's side argued that the previous trial did not allow the submission of evidence proving FTX's solvency at the time, resulting in a biased verdict. The prosecution emphasized that the chain of evidence, including the testimony of three witnesses and a large number of internal documents, was complete and sufficient for conviction. SBF is currently serving his sentence in a low-security prison in Los Angeles and is expected to be released in October 2044.