Cointelegraph reported that former FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), who was convicted on charges including misappropriation of customer funds and is serving a 25-year prison sentence, has withdrawn his request for a criminal retrial. In documents filed on Wednesday (local time) with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, SBF stated, "I believe I cannot receive a fair hearing before Judge Lewis Kaplan, and therefore I am withdrawing my motion for a new trial (Rule 33 motion), reserving the right to refile the motion for a new trial after a decision is made regarding direct appeal and reassignment of the case." Previously, in February, SBF had requested a different judge, claiming that Judge Kaplan showed "extreme prejudice." The appeal of the conviction and sentence is ongoing in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
