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Sam Bankman-Fried is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review his criminal case, challenging trial decisions about evidence and an approximately $11 billion forfeiture order. The petition is pending; filing it does not mean the Court has agreed to hear the appeal.
The immediate next step is for the United States to respond. As of October 14, 2026, the Court had neither granted nor denied review.
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What Bankman-Fried is asking the Supreme Court to review
In Samuel Bankman-Fried v. United States, docket No. 26-349, the petitioner challenges the Second Circuit judgment that left his conviction in place. His petition raises two broad issues: whether the trial court improperly limited evidence relevant to FTX’s ability to repay customers and the ultimate soundness of investments, and whether the forfeiture order violates the Eighth Amendment’s Excessive Fines Clause.
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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchThe petition was filed on September 10, 2026, and docketed on September 15. The United States’ response deadline has been extended to November 16, 2026. That date is a deadline for the government’s response, not a scheduled decision date for the Supreme Court.
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Why the trial evidence matters to the appeal
The evidentiary dispute concerns what the jury could consider when deciding whether the charged conduct was fraudulent. Bankman-Fried’s petition argues that evidence about FTX’s ability to repay customers and whether investments ultimately proved sound was relevant and should have been available to the jury. The legal question, as framed by the petition, is whether those subjects bear on the fraud issues the jury had to decide and whether the trial rulings limiting evidence were proper.
That is a challenge to trial rulings, not a finding that customers were repaid or that the investments were sound. The petition seeks review of the evidentiary limits; the Supreme Court has not ruled on that request. The available description of the petition does not specify every item of excluded evidence or the precise trial-court reasoning for each ruling, so those details should not be inferred from the broad issue statement.
What the government said happened
The Supreme Court appendix summarizes the government’s trial theory this way: Bankman-Fried obtained investments in FTX by promising customers their funds would be secure on the platform and used only for cryptocurrency transactions there. Prosecutors argued that he then transferred customer-account funds from FTX to Alameda and elsewhere for unauthorized purposes, including personal benefit.
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This is the government’s account of the conduct presented at trial. It should be distinguished from Bankman-Fried’s appellate arguments about what evidence the jury should have heard. The Second Circuit upheld the conviction, and the Associated Press reported that the appeals court described the government’s evidence as “conservatively stated, robust.”
The separate dispute over approximately $11 billion
Bankman-Fried also contests the approximately $11 billion forfeiture order under the Eighth Amendment’s Excessive Fines Clause. Forfeiture is distinct from the prison sentence: it is the financial order at issue in this part of the petition. The petition asks the Supreme Court to consider whether the amount is constitutionally excessive; the amount alone does not establish that it is, and the Court has not decided the question.
The materials summarized for the petition identify the constitutional challenge but do not set out its full calculation or the parties’ detailed arguments about how the forfeiture amount relates to the offense. It would therefore be premature to treat the $11 billion figure as a calculation of customer losses or as a final Supreme Court determination about what is owed.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the lower courts decided and the sentence
After a four-week trial, Bankman-Fried was convicted on all counts. The district court sentenced him to 25 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release and ordered approximately $11 billion in forfeiture. The Supreme Court appendix reproduces those outcomes.
The Second Circuit affirmed the conviction in its decision dated June 12, 2026. The Supreme Court petition challenges that judgment; it does not erase the appeals court’s decision while review remains unresolved.
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Will the Supreme Court hear the case?
Not yet. Bankman-Fried has petitioned for a writ of certiorari, asking the Supreme Court to take up the case. A petition is a request for review, not an acceptance of the appeal. The docket’s posture as of October 14, 2026, is pending, with no grant or denial of certiorari recorded.
After the government’s response is filed, the petition can proceed through the Court’s review process. The Supreme Court may grant or deny review; the response deadline itself does not predict which outcome the justices will choose or when they will act.
Who represents each side
Jeffrey L. Fisher of Hecker Fink LLP is counsel of record for Bankman-Fried. Solicitor General D. John Sauer is counsel of record for the United States.
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