FTX Founder SBF Eyes Presidential Pardon From Trump Over 2022 Fiasco

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has officially requested a presidential pardon from Donald Trump. With this, he is ramping up his efforts to undo the fallout from the 2022 collapse of the crypto exchange.

SBF Seeks Trump’s Pardon Over FTX Collapse

The pardon application was submitted via the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of the Pardon Attorney. Currently, Bankman-Fried is still serving a 25-year prison term. The sentence comes owing to a scheme of defrauding consumers and investors of millions of dollars, according to the federal government.

For context, in November 2023, SBF was found guilty of seven criminal charges. These include those for fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering for his involvement in the collapse of FTX and Alameda Research. Prosecutors said that customer money was misappropriated by Alameda to pay for trading losses, political contributions and venture investments.

In March 2024, the former crypto billionaire received her sentence from Judge Lewis Kaplan, along with over $11 billion in forfeitures. The case concerns the loss of more than $8 billion in customer money, which was lost due to FTX’s bankruptcy petition in November 2022, authorities said.

Ever since his conviction, Bankman-Fried has been going on the offensive against the government narrative. He has made this statement in public.

Moreover, in interviews, he attributed liquidity issues at FTX to more than just theft. For this, he also suggested that the criminal prosecution was politically motivated. He has also called out Judge Kaplan’s alleged bias in the case.

The pardon is filed after months of outreach by those close to the former FTX chief, per FOX Buisness. His parents, Stanford professors Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, had been looking at ways to seek clemency with attorneys on the fringes of the Trump network.

What Are The Odds of SBF Getting Presidential Pardon?

However, the chances of reviving political prospects for a pardon are dim. Trump has publicly declared that he doesn’t plan to pardon Bankman-Fried, although he has done so for other high-profile individuals connected to the digital asset space. He previously granted presidential pardon to Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht and even Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, who left prison with just four months.

Republican legislators who have been supportive of cryptocurrencies have also moved away from the disgraced CEO of FTX. This is because the losses which have taken place with the collapse of the exchange with customers and investors are enormous.

Prediction markets reflect this sentiment. That’s why traders on the Polymarket site have only pegged a 7% chance of Trump pardoning Bankman-Fried in 2026.

Meanwhile, the FTX bankruptcy estate has kept on distributing money to creditors. To date, billions have been returned to impacted users via court-settled repayment plans.

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