FTX cofounder Sam Bankman-Fried filed a formal request for a presidential pardon while serving a 25-year fraud sentence. His petition asks President Donald Trump for clemency following the cryptocurrency exchange’s collapse.
The request does not mean a pardon has been granted. Trump said in January that he was not planning to offer Bankman-Fried clemency, Forbes reported.
Petition Appears On Justice Department List
The 34-year-old’s application appeared on the Justice Department Pardon Attorney Office’s public case-status listing. The listing categorized it as a request for a “pardon after completion of sentence.”
Bankman-Fried received his 25-year prison term in 2024. Prosecutors said he defrauded FTX customers and used their money for investments, real estate and political donations.
According to the report, he assured customers their money was safe. Prosecutors estimated that FTX defrauded investors of $10 billion.
Bankman-Fried submitted his request through the government’s regular pardon process. The Justice Department office handles thousands of applications annually and recommends cases for presidential consideration.
Former Executive Makes Public Clemency Appeal
Forbes reported that Bankman-Fried was trying to rebuild his image from a low-security facility in California. His posts on X expressed support for Trump.
Those posts included praise for Trump’s handling of the Iran conflict and several clemency decisions. Bankman-Fried was previously a major Democratic donor, according to the report.
In a Fox Business interview published Monday, he said he “absolutely” wanted a pardon. He acknowledged that the decision rested with Trump.
Bankman-Fried also pointed to Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over his fraud trial. Kaplan oversaw a separate defamation case that Trump lost.
“He used the same playbook on @realDonaldTrump,” Bankman-Fried wrote on X in February.
The post was part of his effort to portray both men as targets of the same court, Forbes reported. It did not establish presidential support for his request.
Other Crypto Figures Received Pardons
Trump granted clemency to several other cryptocurrency figures during his second term. Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht received a full pardon in January 2025.
The decision ended Ulbricht’s double life sentence after more than a decade in prison. BitMEX founders Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo and Samuel Reed received pardons in March 2025.
The BitMEX founders had pleaded guilty to ignoring federal anti-money-laundering rules. Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao received a pardon in October 2025.
Trump described his crypto pardons as fulfilling a 2024 campaign promise to end a government “war on crypto.” Forbes reported that he often granted pardons directly rather than following the regular recommendation process.
An NBC News analysis from January found white-collar offenders accounted for more than half of Trump’s 88 individual pardons. Money laundering, bank fraud and wire fraud were the most frequent charges in that group.
Application Awaits Presidential Decision
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Bankman-Fried’s formal application followed months of public efforts to seek clemency. Trump’s January statement remained a stated obstacle, while Bankman-Fried acknowledged the president would decide his request.
