A spokesperson from the White House has confirmed that U.S. President Donald Trump will offer no clemency to Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the founder and former CEO of the now-defunct FTX cryptocurrency exchange.
The spokesperson added that Trump is the sole decider on a mercy release, and he is firmly rooted in granting no pardon to SBF.
In March 2024, Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison after being found guilty of all seven counts of money laundering, conspiracy, and fraud.
In his defense, SBF argued that he and FTX had been strategically targeted by the Biden administration because of his multi-million-dollar pro-Republican donations. His parents (both professors and legal scholars at Stanford Law School) have tried to secure a presidential pardon for their son to no avail.
A week ago, SBF claimed that FTX’s collapse was manufactured by lawyers and his successor, John J. Ray III, who allegedly profited from the exchange’s bankruptcy filings. He also pinpointed the FTX $7.1 billion payback of its investors as a show of goodwill.
Source: X
More recently, Bankman-Fried took to X in a long-shot show of Republican pivot, with hopes of swaying Trump’s resolve. He described the recent tariff policies as “right on crypto” and Trump’s capture and extradition of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro as “smart, gutsy, and pro-democracy.” SBF further noted the “political bias” nature of Judge Lewis Kaplan, the man who sentenced him and has been a key player in civil cases against Trump.
Bankman-Fried remains incarcerated at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, New York. The 33-year-old man has run into rotten luck with yet another denial of a presidential pardon and a much heavier sentence compared to his associates.
Supporters say SBF should receive a similar pardon to crypto players like Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao and former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes. Trump, however, stands his ground, saying the man committed financial fraud worth $8 billion. Bankman-Fried’s last resort is an appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
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