Gogol-Style Rumpus: SBF, DOJ, and a Judge’s Recusal

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In the smoky, teeming bazaar of modern publicity, where the currency is chatter and the clerk wears a grin of legal papers, FTX’s former prodigy Sam Bankman-Fried climbs again upon the soapbox of X. He declaims, with the solemnity of a municipal bell, that U.S. prosecutors have pressed witnesses into silence as if coaxing timid cats, and that the whole verdict should melt away like frost at a spring fair-an overturned conviction, a fresh start, a new season for mislaid fortunes.

Summary

  • Sam Bankman-Fried has resurfaced on X, claiming that the guardians of order pressured witnesses in his FTX trial and that the verdict should be overturned.
  • He also called for U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan to recuse himself, alleging bias and prejudging defendants in his case.
  • Reaction on X has been sharply negative, with users arguing that misusing customer funds is fraud no matter the solvency, and mocking the notion of a neat reversal.

The Plea for a Judge’s Retreat

In a missive posted upon the platform of X, Bankman-Fried asserts that “new evidence” reveals the Biden administration’s Department of Justice coaxing witnesses to hush or to alter their stories as one might tilt a hat in a gust.

He declares that this meddling gnaws at the very furniture of the trial and warrants tossing the conviction onto the ash-heap of history.

He also petitions for U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan to recuse himself from ruling on the matter, accusing Kaplan of prejudging defendants and arranging proceedings against him, citing perceived echoes of earlier treatment toward former FTX executive Ryan Salame and even the President, Donald Trump.

The remarks follow Bankman-Fried’s recent legal filings seeking a new trial, in which his defense complains that jurors were denied access to exculpatory evidence and that witness testimony was improperly curtailed.

His team has previously contended that crucial evidence about FTX’s inner workings and bankruptcy procedures was kept from the jury, hobbling his ability to present a full defense.

Agree with almost all of this.

But FTX was never bankrupt. I never filed for it.

The lawyers took over the company and 4 hours later they filed a bogus bankruptcy so they could pilfer it for money.

– SBF (@SBF_FTX) February 10, 2026

As of now, the allegations stand unproven, like a rumor that refuses to clock out for the night.

Banks of ink and courts of law said he was found guilty in 2023 on multiple counts of fraud and conspiracy tied to the FTX collapse and is now serving a lengthy federal sentence. Appeals and post-conviction motions continue, while the question of procedural missteps remains to be settled by the stern arbiters of justice.

Reaction on X arrived with speed and venom. Many voices rejected the claims outright, insisting that misappropriation of customer assets is fraud regardless of solvency, with one quip comparing it to theft even if the car is later returned.

Misappropriating assets and then lying about it is fraud, regardless of solvency. If I took your car for a joy ride, it would still be theft even if I returned it in one piece. Insolvency is not necessary to be fraud.

– PaperImperium (@ImperiumPaper) February 11, 2026

Others answered with sharper language and louder curses, sullying SBF’s credibility with sworn testimonies from former associates, and some wondered aloud how a man in jail may still post publicly with such ease after a unanimous conviction.

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2026-02-11 15:10