Sam Bankman-Fried Seeks Presidential Pardon From US President Donald Trump

Former CEO of FTX exchange, Sam Bankman-Fried, has formally applied for a presidential pardon from US President Donald Trump, after being found guilty of fraud related to the multibillion-dollar collapse of the crypto exchange in 2022. Bankman-Fried's plea appeared on the US Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of the Pardon Attorney website, which has a complete list of pending clemency requests. This pardon falls under the category of “Pardon after completion of sentence”. This application is made at a time when the former FTX executive is fighting his conviction in 2023 for fraud.

Pardon Request Comes Amidst Ongoing Appeals and Legal Challenges

Prior to his clemency request, in the past few months, Bankman-Fried has shown support for POTUS, with a series of social media posts. One of these included his comments on how the S&P 500 index has continued to show gains during the US President's second term. Although in January, The New York Times interview if he would pardon Bankman-Fried, the President replied, “No, I don't want to.”

Earlier in April, Sam Bankman-Fried had also sought a new trial, but the request was later rejected by a US judge who reasoned that the witnesses cited were not newly discovered. The former FTX CEO's trial was overseen by Judge Lewis Kaplan in 2023, who wrote in an order on Tuesday that the claim of new evidence and witnesses was baseless. In February, Bankman-Fried had requested a new trial to be overseen by a different judge. Moreover, the motion was reportedly filed without consulting his lawyers, while an appeals court was considering his conviction and sentence. 

Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2024 for stealing $8 billion (roughly Rs. 66,678 crore) from customers of the now-bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange he founded, the last step in the former billionaire's dramatic downfall. US District Judge Lewis Kaplan handed down the sentence at a Manhattan court hearing after rejecting Bankman-Fried's claim that FTX customers did not actually lose money and finding that he lied during his trial testimony.

Even after all this, there still might be a chance for Bankman-Fried, as the US president has set a precedent for such cases. In October 2025, the US President pardoned Changpeng Zhao, widely known as CZ, the founder of Binance, following his 2023 guilty plea for enabling money laundering while leading the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange. The pardon, which comes amidst continuing controversy over the administration's stance on the cryptocurrency sector, removes earlier limitations that had stopped Zhao from operating financial businesses.