TL;DR
- U.S. federal judge Lewis Kaplan rejected Bankman-Fried's petition for a new trial on April 28, 2026
- The judge called the claims of new evidence "baseless" and a "wild conspiracy theory"
- The defense team claims the trial was "fundamentally unfair" and continues the appeal in the Second Circuit
- FTX creditors have so far received approximately $10 billion, and 98 percent are expected to recover more than they originally lost
Judge Strongly Rejected the Motion
District Judge Lewis Kaplan in New York denied Sam Bankman-Fried a new trial on April 28, 2026, according to Cointelegraph. The judge described the petition as seemingly an attempt to "salvage the reputation" of the former FTX CEO, characterizing the claims of new evidence as both "baseless" and "wildly conspiratorial."
In an unusual move, Bankman-Fried attempted to withdraw his own petition — but Kaplan also rejected this, choosing instead to address the matter in its entirety.
The judge described the petition as seemingly an attempt to "salvage the reputation" of the former FTX CEO
Defense Arguments in the Appeal Case
Although the immediate petition has been rejected, a separate appeal case is ongoing before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Bankman-Fried's appellate attorney Alexandra Shapiro has put forward several key arguments:
Limited Defense: Shapiro claims that the defense's ability to present evidence was severely restricted by Judge Kaplan's decisions, and thus the jury never heard "one side of the story."
Attorney Consultation: A central point is that the defense team believes Bankman-Fried should have been allowed to fully present that he acted based on legal advice when structuring the company's dispositions.
Solvency Issue: The defense argues that Bankman-Fried believed FTX was solvent enough for customers to get their money back, and that the problem was liquidity — not embezzlement. As an example, they highlight that the FTX estate's $500 million investment in AI company Anthropic is now estimated to be worth over $14.6 billion, even though the bankruptcy estate's lawyers sold the shares at lower prices to pay creditors.
Creditors Are Getting Their Money Back
Parallel to the lawsuits, the FTX estate has made significant progress in creditor payouts. After a fourth distribution of $2.2 billion on March 31, 2026, the estate has so far paid out approximately $10 billion since distributions began in early 2025, according to research data reviewed by 24Krypto.
Estate leader John Ray III has stated that the goal is to return 100 percent of claim amounts plus interest to non-governmental creditors — something he has called the "largest and most complex" bankruptcy distribution in history.
However, the picture needs to be nuanced: payouts are based on values from November 2022, when crypto prices were significantly lower than today. Creditor attorney Sunil Kavuri has pointed out that creditors are not truly fully compensated, as they, for example, miss out on the appreciation in value of bitcoin and ether since the time of bankruptcy.
What Happens Next?
A fifth distribution round is planned for May 29, 2026. Further payout rounds are announced through 2026 and into 2027 via service providers BitGo, Kraken, and Payoneer.
For Bankman-Fried himself, the appeal in the Second Circuit now remains the last real opportunity to change the 25-year sentence. Legal experts, including former SEC senior attorney Howard Fischer, emphasize that courts traditionally grant trial judges wide discretion — making it extremely challenging to overturn such decisions.
Sources: Cointelegraph, official FTX estate documents, and 24Krypto's own investigations.
