Trump Won’t Pardon FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), White House Says

The White House has stated that U.S. President Donald Trump won’t pardon FTX’s founder, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). This follows a recent campaign from the crypto founder to get a pardon from the president, even as he seeks a new trial.

White House Says Trump Won’t Pardon SBF

According to a Fortune report, a White House spokesperson reiterated that Trump has no intention to pardon the FTX founder. The spokesperson referenced the president’s comments last month, in which he said he did not plan to pardon Sam Bankman-Fried. “The President is the ultimate decider on all pardons,” the spokesperson wrote in an email to Fortune.

This provides a setback for SBF, who is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence after a November 2023 jury conviction on seven fraud and conspiracy counts. The FTX founder was directly responsible for the exchange’s collapse, having defrauded customers, lenders, and investors.

Bankman-Fried had begun a campaign a while back seeking Trump’s pardon. His X account, run by a proxy, made posts in support of the current administration’s pro-crypto stance while accusing the Biden administration of cracking down on the crypto industry. He also recently put out an X post accusing Democrats of censoring ‘misinfo’ on social media while praising Trump’s Truth Social for putting free speech first.

It is worth noting that Trump pardoned Binance’s Changpeng “CZ” Zhao and BitMEX’s Arthur Hayes last year. However, according to Fortune, D.C. insiders noted that SBF’s case is different, as his reputation as one of the top donors to the Biden administration has limited his appeal. The FTX founder is also said to have a villainous status in the crypto industry, which has also made his campaign for a pardon a long shot.

“An Unfair Trial”

The FTX founder’s X account recently released a post addressing “10 myths” about the convicted crypto founder and the defunct crypto exchange. The post claimed that SBF didn’t have a fair trial as the deck was stacked against him in many ways. It also stated that Biden’s DOJ and the Debtors controlled the narrative, the documentary evidence, and the witnesses.

There are also claims that potential defense could not come forward because of media attacks, lawsuits, prosecution, or threats of them. SBF’s X post also claimed that Judge Lewis Kaplan, the judge in charge of the case, was unjust as he banned evidence of FTX’s solvency and advice of counsel.

As CoinGape reported, Sam Bankman-Fried is seeking a new trial, claiming that the government withheld information and harmed his defense. He is also seeking a new judge, claiming that Judge Kaplan is partial.

The FTX founder also continues to claim that his defunct exchange was always solvent and could repay customers. He stated in the X post that FTX could afford to repay in kind, until the bankruptcy lawyers stepped in.