Federal prosecutors have raised concerns about a court filing purportedly submitted by Sam Bankman-Fried, the former chief executive of collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, who is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence. In a filing to the court, prosecutors told a judge that a letter dated March 16 and submitted in Bankman-Fried’s name may not have originated from prison at all. Instead, FedEx tracking data suggested the package was picked up in Palo Alto or Menlo Park, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Prosecutors said the discrepancies gave them reason to doubt the letter was genuinely sent by Bankman-Fried.
Among the inconsistencies cited by prosecutors, the envelope incorrectly labeled the prison facility, and the document carried a typed “/s/” signature rather than a handwritten one. These details appeared to conflict with Bureau of Prisons rules, which prohibit inmates from using private carriers such as FedEx. The letter itself had requested a one-month extension, until April 16, for Bankman-Fried to respond to a government brief. It cited an anticipated transfer from FCI Terminal Island and warned that he could be left without access to legal materials or counsel while in transit.
Separate filings from the same date also highlight tensions surrounding the involvement of Bankman-Fried’s family in his legal affairs. A letter submitted in his name but written by his mother, Barbara Fried, a professor at Stanford Law, sought an extension of time in the case. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected the filing, stating that Fried lacked standing to seek relief because she is not counsel of record and has not formally appeared in the case. The judge also noted that court staff had received a voicemail from someone identifying herself as Fried, and reminded parties that the court does not accept telephone calls from litigants or their family members. Kaplan nonetheless extended the deadline on his own initiative to March 23.
Bankman-Fried dismissed his legal team in early February and is currently representing himself. His family has simultaneously launched a public campaign to recast his case and press for clemency. In a March 21 interview with CNN, his parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, argued that his prosecution was politically motivated and his sentence excessive. Fried said she believed the Biden administration had sought to undermine the cryptocurrency industry, while Bankman rejected comparisons between his son and convicted fraudster Bernie Madoff, describing Sam as a pioneer who built billion-dollar businesses in a new field.
The family also challenged the core findings of the criminal case, characterizing FTX’s collapse as a liquidity crisis rather than deliberate fraud. Fried argued that all customer money was eventually returned with interest, while Bankman described fund transfers to affiliated trading firm Alameda Research as borrowing within the platform. Critics counter that this framing understates losses, noting that cryptocurrency prices rebounded sharply after FTX’s collapse in November 2022, meaning customers would have held far more valuable assets had their funds not been frozen.
FTX was once valued at $32 billion before it imploded following a surge in withdrawal requests that exposed a shortfall linked to the use of customer funds by Alameda. Prosecutors said approximately $8 billion in customer money was missing at the time of the bankruptcy. A jury subsequently convicted Bankman-Fried on seven counts including fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering. The FTX bankruptcy estate has since recovered enough to repay many claims based on 2022 valuations, though the adequacy of that repayment remains contested.
Supporters of Bankman-Fried have pointed to President Donald Trump‘s 2025 pardon of Binance founder Changpeng Zhao as a signal of a more lenient approach to cryptocurrency enforcement in Washington. Since his social media account became active again in September of last year, Bankman-Fried has shaped his public messaging around themes aligned with Trump and his allies, criticizing Biden-era crypto policy and alleging prosecutorial overreach. However, Trump indicated in February that he currently has no plans to pardon Bankman-Fried, and Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio was quoted by Politico as saying the former executive should not be pardoned and deserves a lengthy prison term.
Originally reported by Decrypt.
