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who was convicted on charges including customer fund misappropriation and is serving a 25-year prison sentence, has withdrawn his request for a criminal retrial.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