Sam Bankman-Fried Tries One Last Hail Mary – With Donald Trump

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The disgraced founder of crypto exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, has officially asked President Donald Trump for a pardon more than two years after receiving a 25-year prison sentence for fraud tied to the collapse of FTX. The request appears on the U.S. Department of Justice pardon database and comes after months of public comments in which the former crypto executive praised parts of the Trump administration’s agenda. The move adds another chapter to one of crypto’s most dramatic fall-from-grace stories and is already reigniting debate across the industry.

SBF Files Formal Clemency Request

According to a June 8 report, the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney said that Bankman-Fried had submitted an application seeking a “pardon after completion of sentence,” and the case is currently listed as pending. 

Unlike a commutation, such a pardon wouldn’t shorten his prison term. Instead, it would restore certain civil rights and remove some legal barriers after the sentence has been served.

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The former FTX chief received his sentence in March 2024 to 25 years in prison after the conviction on fraud and conspiracy charges tied to the collapse of the exchange and its sister trading firm, Alameda Research.

Prosecutors cited diversion of billions of dollars in customer funds for expenditures like investments and political contributions. Judge Lewis Kaplan also ordered more than $11 billion in forfeiture related to the case.

Bankman-Fried has continued to challenge the outcome. He is pursuing an appeal and has also sought a new trial, as well as cited the lack of proper consideration for key facts about customer recoveries and FTX’s financial condition.

Prison Interview Fuels New Attention

The pardon filing surfaced shortly after a Fox Business interview conducted from federal prison. During the conversation, Bankman-Fried said he would “absolutely” welcome a presidential pardon, but declined to discuss whether his parents or other supporters were lobbying the White House on his behalf.

He also repeated a claim that has become central to his defense. Bankman-Fried argued that customers have now received more than the value of their original deposits because recovered assets benefited from the crypto market’s rebound. 

Prosecutors and the courts, however, based their case on handling customer funds before FTX collapsed rather than on later recoveries during bankruptcy proceedings.

The request faces a difficult path. Trump told The New York Times in January that he had no intention of pardoning Bankman-Fried, though the president has granted clemency to several high-profile figures from the crypto industry during his second term. Whether the FTX founder’s latest effort changes that position remains uncertain.