No new trial for Sam Bankman-Fried

Judge Lewis Kaplan has denied Sam Bankman-Fried's motion for a new trial and refused to let him withdraw it, a ruling that closes off what was likely his last realistic route to avoid his 25-year sentence apart from his pending appeal to the Second Circuit. Kaplan wrote that Bankman-Fried wanted to keep the right to refile the motion later, possibly after key trial-record witnesses were no longer available. The ruling also criticized a reputation-rebuilding plan Bankman-Fried wrote before he was indicted, saying his supposedly new facts had been seen before at trial.