Sam Bankman-Fried, the former crypto billionaire convicted for fraud in 2023, lost an appeal to overturn his conviction and 25-year prison sentence Friday, Reuters reported. 

A New York jury found Bankman-Fried guilty on two charges of wire fraud and five conspiracy counts in November 2023 for his actions while running FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange that declared bankruptcy in 2022 after once being valued at more than $26 billion.

Bankman-Fried pleaded his case to a three-judge panel of Manhattan’s 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, who unanimously rejected his plea on Friday, calling the evidence against him “conservatively stated, robust,” according to Reuters. 

“While he was publicly reassuring customers, investors and regulators that FTX customer funds were ​safe, he was simultaneously using FTX as his own personal piggy bank, spending customer funds on real estate, ​political contributions, and investments,” Circuit Judge Barrington Parker stated, per Reuters.

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Sam Bankman-Fried, co-founder of FTX Cryptocurrency Derivatives Exchange, leaves court in New York, US, on Wednesday, July 26, 2023. (Photographer: Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)

Bankman-Fried became a prolific political donor in the years leading up to his conviction. 

While the one-time crypto magnate appeared to strongly favor Democrats with his donations — his $40 million contributions to Democrats in the 2022 midterms made him the party’s second-biggest donor after George Soros — he poured a significant amount funds into Republican coffers as well. 

According to Michael Lewis’ book about Sam Bankman-Fried’s rise and fall, the former crypto billionaire explored whether a large payment could persuade then-former President Donald Trump not to run for president again. Now, Sam Bankman-Fried signaled he’s like a presidential pardon from Trump.

Bankman-Fried made the admission in an interview with Fox Business’ Susan Li, who asked him if he wanted a pardon.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried spoke to FOX Business from prison, saying he’d “absolutely” be interested in a pardon from President Donald Trump. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images; Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images / Getty Images)

“Absolutely,” he told Li, adding, “It would be obviously, you know, ultimately up to the president, not up to me.”

Bankman-Fried also insisted he was innocent of defrauding or stealing from his customers. 

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“I didn’t steal user funds either,” he told Li. “Customers have been repaid now 170% or so on their deposits. It’s one of the very few cases where the platform was over-collateralized, where customers were more than made whole. And yet there was, you know, not just a criminal investigation, but a prosecution. And, you know, dozens of years of sentence[s].”

From right, Terrence A. Duffy, CEO of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of FTX US Derivatives, Christopher Edmonds, chief development officer of the Intercontinental Exchange, and Christopher Perkins, president of CoinFund, test (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images / Getty Images)

FTX’s bankruptcy estate confirmed to FOX Business that customers are being repaid in full with some getting returns as high as 118%. However, those estimations are calculated using crypto prices from November 2022, a near-bottom in the cryptocurrency market.

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Federal prosecutors alleged during the trial that Bankman-Fried systematically diverted billions of dollars in customer deposits to cover trading losses at his private hedge fund, Alameda Research, orchestrating what they described as a financial fraud of historic proportions. 

Fox Business’ Kristen Altus and Susan Li contributed to this report.

The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company is committing $1 million to help restore the White House South Lawn after Sunday’s UFC event at the White House.

Following the June 14 Freedom 250 event – a centerpiece of the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration – the company will provide funding, products and technical expertise to the National Park Service as it restores the historic lawn.

For investors, the high-profile White House project serves as a showcase for Scotts’ research and development division. It comes as the $3.3 billion company navigates a stagnant U.S. housing market where traditional lawn ownership faces headwinds from flat homeownership rates and changing urban demographics.

“The scale and scope of our R&D department is impressive,” Nate Baxter, Scotts Miracle-Gro chief operating officer, told FOX Business, noting that the company is leveraging its research muscle to expand into organic and biological alternatives to synthetic fertilizers. “I do believe Scotts Miracle-Gro has the horsepower in terms of the investment we make in R&D, to bring naturals and organics, to bring biologicals.”

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The White House South Lawn is set to undergo a restoration effort following this weekend’s UFC Freedom 250 event. (Courtesy of Scotts Miracle-Gro)

The upcoming mixed martial arts event has drawn considerable attention regarding the physical impact on the White House grounds, which currently feature a massive, 92-foot-high temporary venue known as “the Claw” erected on the turf.

Because the grounds are managed by the National Park Service, Scotts is structuring the contribution as a philanthropic donation.

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President Donald Trump is pictured with members of the Scotts Miracle-Gro team in the Oval Office. Scotts plans to provide funding, products and technical expertise for the restoration of the White House South Lawn. (Official White House Photo by Molly Riley)

The restoration is more complex than a standard landscaping project. Washington, D.C.’s climate presents unique challenges, with freezing winters and hot, humid summers.

To navigate these conditions, Scotts brought its research team to the White House to review proprietary seed options with President Donald Trump, who brought his own turf-management experience to the meeting.

“The president knows a lot about grass. I think his history and past with golf courses,” Baxter noted. “It was really interesting to watch our tour scientists, and President Trump, talk through each of these.”

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Scotts Miracle-Gro researchers review turfgrass samples as part of the company’s effort to develop a custom seed blend for the White House South Lawn. (Scotts Miracle-Gro)

Scotts presented multiple seed varieties before settling on a customized four-seed blend engineered to withstand heavy staging equipment and helicopter landings.

“Creating a proprietary blend for the White House’s unique conditions presented a distinct set of challenges,” Matthew Koch, R&D Lawns Research Fellow at Scotts Miracle-Gro, said in a press release. “It is a functional lawn that has to stand up to hundreds of events and thousands of people each year.”

The physical restoration will roll out in phases over the next year. The National Park Service will first disassemble the UFC infrastructure, followed by a previously scheduled public infrastructure project on the grounds.

By July, Scotts will begin restoration by installing mature sod to quickly stabilize and re-green the space before transitioning to its custom seed blend later in the year.

“We’re gonna work, we’ve chosen a sod, and it’s not the same as the blend, but it has some of the same cultivars, we’re gonna help them restart, and get a piece established,” Baxter said.

Once cooler autumn temperatures arrive, technicians will overseed the lawn with the custom four-seed blend selected for the project. A final round of overseeding and fertilization in spring 2027 will complete the restoration.

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While the exact White House mixture is a one-time donation to the National Park Service and will not be commercialized, Scotts confirmed that the underlying cultivars are present in their retail product lines.

By spring 2027, the company expects the restoration to be complete, bringing the South Lawn back from a weekend of UFC fights to its more familiar role hosting state ceremonies, public events and Marine One landings.

Roblox, the popular online gaming platform where millions of users create and play user-generated experiences, faced reports of disruptions Saturday affecting hundreds of players attempting to log in, join games or access core features, sparking widespread frustration during peak weekend activity.

Users across multiple regions took to social media with the hashtag #RobloxDown, sharing screenshots of loading errors, connection failures and inability to launch experiences. While not a complete platform-wide shutdown, the intermittent issues impacted gameplay and community interactions for a notable segment of the player base.

Downdetector and similar outage tracking services registered elevated complaint volumes, though official status pages indicated most systems remained operational with isolated problems. Roblox’s own status dashboard showed all major components as functional, but user reports suggested server connection, game launch and in-experience performance difficulties for some.

The timing coincided with high weekend traffic, as families and young players engage heavily with the platform’s vast library of experiences ranging from simulations and role-playing to competitive challenges. Disruptions during such periods amplify inconvenience, especially for those participating in group activities or events.

Roblox has not issued a detailed public statement on the latest reports. In past similar incidents, the company has acknowledged issues through its status page or social channels, often attributing them to sudden traffic spikes, maintenance or underlying infrastructure challenges. Quick resolutions have been common, with full recovery within hours.

The platform, valued at tens of billions and boasting over 80 million daily active users in recent periods, relies on robust cloud infrastructure to support its expansive virtual world. Brief outages, while rare relative to scale, highlight the complexities of maintaining seamless service for a global, always-on audience dominated by younger demographics.

For many affected players, the problems manifested as endless loading screens, error messages or inability to join friends. Parents monitoring children’s screen time reported added challenges in explaining technical difficulties during scheduled play sessions. Community forums and Reddit threads filled with troubleshooting advice, including cache clearing, VPN toggles and device restarts.

This latest report echoes previous disruptions, such as those in early June 2026 that impacted thousands with game launch failures. Roblox engineers typically respond by rolling back changes or scaling resources, leading to rapid stabilization. The company’s transparency via its public status page helps users stay informed during such events.

Broader context includes Roblox’s continued expansion into new features like enhanced social tools, avatar upgrades and creator economy incentives. These innovations increase platform complexity and demand on backend systems, occasionally contributing to stability tests under heavy load.

Industry analysts note that gaming services face inherent challenges with variable user spikes, especially around holidays, weekends and viral experiences. Roblox’s model, empowering millions of creators, generates unpredictable traffic patterns that require sophisticated monitoring and redundancy.

Despite occasional hiccups, Roblox maintains strong user loyalty due to its creative freedom and social elements. The platform serves as both entertainment and a virtual social hub for children and teens, making reliability a top priority for long-term engagement.

Users experiencing issues are advised to check the official Roblox status page, restart applications or devices, and ensure stable internet connections. Many problems resolve spontaneously as load balancing adjusts. For persistent cases, support tickets through the app or website provide official channels.

The incident underscores Roblox’s critical role in digital entertainment. With billions in annual revenue and a massive creator community, even short disruptions draw significant attention. Company executives have previously emphasized investments in infrastructure to minimize future occurrences.

Community reactions mixed disappointment with understanding. Many players expressed appreciation for the platform’s overall uptime while hoping for faster resolutions. Others shared workarounds or shifted to alternative games temporarily. Social media served as both a complaint outlet and coordination space for updates.

As a publicly traded company, Roblox faces expectations for enterprise-level reliability alongside its fun, creative identity. Stock performance often remains resilient to brief technical issues, reflecting confidence in underlying growth drivers like user-generated content and international expansion.

Parents and educators value Roblox for its educational potential in coding, collaboration and digital citizenship, making service continuity important beyond pure entertainment. Outages remind families of the platform’s dependence on technology infrastructure.

Roblox continues evolving with safety features, moderation tools and age-appropriate experiences. These efforts, combined with technical robustness, support its mission to connect a global audience through play. Saturday’s reports, though disruptive for some, appear limited in scope compared to major past events.

Looking forward, the company is expected to maintain focus on scalability as its user base grows. Enhanced monitoring, AI-driven anomaly detection and expanded data centers form part of ongoing resilience strategies. Players can anticipate continued innovation alongside reliable access.

For now, affected users await full normalization. Historical patterns suggest quick recovery, allowing the Roblox community to resume creating, exploring and competing in its vibrant virtual universe. The episode serves as a minor reminder of the challenges in powering one of the world’s largest online gaming ecosystems.

As weekend play sessions continue, Roblox enthusiasts worldwide hope for smooth experiences ahead. The platform’s enduring popularity demonstrates its central place in modern youth culture, with technical reliability key to sustaining that position.