Convicted FTX founder Bankman-Fried asks for Trump pardon

• Key insight: Former FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, sentenced in 2023 to 25 years for financial fraud, applied for a presidential pardon on Monday.
• Expert quote: "The pardon of one more celebrity white collar criminal would not surprise me." –Dan Greenberg, senior legal fellow, Cato Institute
• Forward look: President Trump suggested in January he would not pardon Bankman-Fried, but he has issued more than 1,400 pardons in his second term.

Sam Bankman-Fried really wants to get out of jail.

The convicted FTX founder applied for a presidential pardon on Monday, three years into his 25-year prison sentence for the $10 billion fraud he orchestrated through his cryptocurrency empire. It is the latest in a series of moves by Bankman-Fried and his team to try and shorten his sentence.

Bankman-Fried's application is pending, according to the Justice Department's pardon office website. The petition sought "Pardon after Completion of Sentence" — rather than a commutation, which would shorten the amount of time he serves — and did not specify who filed the request. Attorneys who represented Bankman-Fried in his criminal trial did not respond to a request for comment. In a statement to American Banker, a DOJ spokesperson wrote that "Anyone is eligible to apply for a pardon and POTUS is the ultimate decider."

In contrast to the 2008 financial crisis, former White House chief ethics lawyer Richard Painter says that the "criminal" nature of "FTX was a pretty clear case" and he wouldn't grant the crypto founder a pardon. However, Painter added that he does not believe that "President Trump, with all due respect, makes decisions about pardons based on their merits."

The June 8 appeal marks another step in Bankman-Fried's resistance to his sentencing. His legal team is currently awaiting a verdict on their appeal before the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals which concluded oral arguments in November 2025. Earlier this year, Bankman-Fried's mother also submitted a pro se motion for reconsideration to the Southern District of New York Federal Court, echoing her son's frequent claims that he was denied a fair trial. 

Representatives of the White House directed a request for comment to President Donald Trump's remarks from a January interview with The New York Times, where he stated that he had no intention of pardoning the convicted crypto founder. "I don't know [Bankman-Fried] at all," Trump told the Times.

With his typically disheveled hair and baggy clothes, Bankman-Fried painted a picture of himself as a trading savant who left Wall Street for the magic of bitcoin. He ran the exchange FTX and trading firm Alameda, appeared on magazine covers and in ads with Gisele Bundchen. But behind the scenes he was manipulating the finances of both companies, behavior that was eventually exposed. The 34-year-old Bankman-Fried was convicted in 2023 on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy for orchestrating a scheme through his cryptocurrency exchange empire that prosecutors say cost customers, lenders, and investors more than $10 billion.

While Trump said he didn't know Bankman-Fried, he has been very generous with the pardon power. Trump has issued more than 1,400 pardons and commutations in his second term alone — six times the 238 he granted across his entire first term, according to DOJ records. He also pardoned well-known figures in the crypto world, including Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht and Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao. The scope and pace has drawn sharp criticism from legal scholars and political pundits, who argue he is abusing the presidential pardon power.

Cato Institute senior legal fellow Dan Greenberg said that the formal "bureaucracy" for clemency applicants in previous presidencies has been replaced by an "informal process" that "disproportionately favors famous people."

"At this point the president has pardoned or granted clemency to so many white collar criminals who are clearly guilty and who have clearly done bad things that at this point, the pardon of one more celebrity white collar criminal would not surprise me," Greenberg said.

By his analysis, Trump is "more likely to be swayed when people say nice or complimentary things about him." Greenberg added that there are "a number of factors that make it a little bit more likely that President Trump is going to pardon Sam Bankman-Fried."

While formerly a Democratic megadonor, Bankman-Fried has made numerous public and private appeals to Trump regarding clemency. On Monday morning he told Fox Business that he "absolutely" wants a presidential pardon, before adding "It would be obviously, you know, ultimately up to the president, not up to me."

From his prison cell in California, Bankman-Fried has taken to social media to praise Trump's economic policies and decisions in the Iran War. His representatives have also courted Republican strategists with close ties to the Trump administration, according to the Financial Times. 

"Now they're putting on the red hats, and it really looks fake because they're all so left wing," Painter added, citing Bankman-Fried and his parents' extensive donations to the Democratic party in the 2020 and 2022 elections. "It's so obvious he's kissing up to Trump … you look at his X posts and he's suddenly become a complete Trumper. It's so fake."

"If Trump pardons [Bankman-Fried], all the power to him," Painter laughed. "But it's all a farce."