Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of the collapsed crypto exchange FTX, has formally applied for a presidential pardon from Donald Trump – just two years into a 25-year prison sentence for fraud.
The 34-year-old former billionaire filed an application for a “pardon after completion of sentence” to the Department of Justice, according to online records unearthed on Monday. Such a pardon would forgive his conviction on multiple federal fraud charges once he completes his term, but he has not asked for a commutation that would shorten his sentence.
“Sam Bankman-Fried, serving 25 years for FTX fraud, has applied for a presidential pardon from Donald Trump.”
Bankman-Fried told Fox Business in a phone interview last Wednesday that he would “absolutely” welcome a pardon, adding: “It would be obviously, you know, ultimately up to the president, not up to me.” Asked whether he or his parents had been in contact with Trump, he replied: “I haven’t myself,” and said he “can’t speak for” his family members.
The application comes amid a flurry of more than 20,000 requests for pardons or commutations before the Office of the Pardon Attorney. Trump has already granted clemency to hundreds of January 6 Capitol attackers, former staffers, the founder of a dark web drug marketplace, and even the leader of rival crypto platform Binance. Yet earlier this year, when asked if he would pardon Bankman-Fried, Trump indicated he would not.
Bankman-Fried has long maintained his innocence and is currently appealing his conviction. In March, a three-judge panel of the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan reacted sceptically to his lawyer’s arguments. Attorney Alexandra Shapiro told the court that the trial judge left the defence “cut off by the knees” by limiting evidence about legal advice Bankman-Fried received. “Mr Bankman-Fried’s trial was fundamentally unfair because the jury only got to hear one side of the story,” she said.
Circuit Judge Barrington D Parker countered that the trial record contained “very substantial evidence” supporting the conviction. “Are you seriously suggesting to us that if your client had been able to testify about the role that attorneys played in preparing these various documents, the not-guilty verdicts would have rolled in?” he asked. Fellow judges Eunice C Lee and Maria Araujo Kahn echoed his scepticism.
Government attorney Nathan Rehn argued that the trial was fair and the evidence overwhelming, noting that three of the four people who knew Bankman-Fried was illegally using billions of dollars in customer deposits to fund investments and political donations testified against him.
FTX collapsed into bankruptcy in November 2022 after it emerged that Bankman-Fried had been using deposited funds as his own – including to make personal investments and pay debts. The firm had been thriving just months earlier, backed by a Super Bowl advert and celebrity endorsements. A representative of the White House declined to comment on the pardon application, and a lawyer for Bankman-Fried did not reply to a request for comment.