Sam Bankman-Fried, convicted former CEO of crypto exchange FTX, has revived his public defense from federal prison through a series of posts on his X account in the past 24 hours as of February 10, 2026. The account, claimed to be used by a proxy due to prison restrictions, posted accusations against prosecutors, judges, and bankruptcy lawyers of misconduct while reiterating claims that FTX was never truly insolvent or bankrupt.
On February 10, 2026, SBF replied to a detailed post by former FTX employee Alex Wice. He defended SBF, calling the 2023 trial a “kangaroo court” where Judge Kaplan blocked key defenses such as the “relied on lawyers” to negate intent, solvency evidence, customer repayment proof, and FTX terms on margin risks.
Wice argued the jury saw a distorted theft narrative, while issues were sloppy management and Alameda losses, not fraud, and no bankruptcy would have sped repayments (like Bitfinex). He also condemned Salame’s jailing for refusing to testify.
SBF responded, “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.”
He attached a January 2023 sworn filing on talks with attorney Ryne Miller, claiming he opposed including solvent FTX.US (per wallet checks) for sale to repay users, but lawyers required it for their retainer (citing $200M+ from entities like LedgerX).
SBF’s claim centers on how bankruptcy professionals are paid: once Chapter 11 was filed, lawyers and advisers were authorized by the court to bill hourly fees directly from FTX’s remaining assets, making the estate, not SBF, responsible for their compensation. He argues this created an incentive to expand the bankruptcy scope, including solvent entities like FTX. US, ensuring a larger pool of cash to fund legal fees that ultimately ran into hundreds of millions of dollars. Bankruptcy courts later approved those fees, but SBF says that lawyers put billable work ahead of getting customers their money back faster.
This contrasts with records: FTX filed Chapter 11 on November 11, 2022, after a bank run exposed an $8–10 billion shortfall from misused customer funds at Alameda. SBF was convicted in 2023 on seven fraud counts and sentenced in 2024. Recoveries are now pointing toward near-full repayments, despite the courts having confirmed insolvency at filing. In parallel, SBF is using social media to push the narrative that it was lawyer overreach, not fraud, that got him here.
