SBF's Last Hail Mary: Supreme Court Petition, $11B Forfeiture & a Pardon That May Never Land ⚖️

Former FTX CEO Sam "SBF" Bankman-Fried is preparing to ask the US Supreme Court to review his criminal conviction, with his attorney Jeffrey Fisher of Hecker Fink LLP telling Cointelegraph that SCOTUS may decide whether to take the case in late 2026 or early 2027. SCOTUS rules require Bankman-Fried to file a petition for a writ of certiorari within 90 days of a decision from an appellate court, requesting that the justices consider the case. The Supreme Court initially gave the US government until Oct. 15 to respond to SBF's petition, then granted an extension to Nov. 16. Fisher said that if the court grants review, it could issue a decision in the current term, which ends in June 2027, or during its next term, which begins a year from now.

Bankman-Fried was convicted on seven felony fraud counts related to the misuse of customer funds by FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange he founded and led, and which filed for bankruptcy in November 2022. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison and ordered to pay $11 billion in forfeiture. The petition presents two main arguments for the justices: that lower courts improperly weighed "evidence indicating victims lost money," and that the $11 billion forfeiture order violated the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on "excessive fines." "The Supreme Court has expressed concern over the years for prosecutorial overreach in criminal fraud prosecutions," Fisher told Cointelegraph. "This kind of evidence introduced in this prosecution raises a real question about prejudice to the defendant."

The argument presented by prosecutors at trial and reiterated by the Second Circuit in its June 2026 decision found it "immaterial as a matter of law" whether the former CEO had the funds and planned to repay FTX's victims for their losses. "As the district court made clear, FTX customers were defrauded as soon as Bankman-Fried transferred their money to Alameda regardless of how strongly he believed he might later return the money," the Second Circuit said. Bankman-Fried lost his appeal to the Second Circuit in 2026, and a US Senate resolution was unanimously adopted opposing clemency for SBF, even as he continues to seek a pardon from President Donald Trump alongside the high court bid.