Convicted crypto fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried formally submitted a pardon request with the Division of Justice, however the odds of President Donald Trump granting him clemency stay slight, based on a White Home spokesperson. The standing of Bankman-Fried’s request is at present listed as “pending,” per the Division of Justice’s web site on Monday.
The FTX cofounder’s petition follows experiences that his mother and father have been partaking with people linked to Trump’s internal circle to curry the president’s favor—a notable pivot for the onetime crypto billionaire, who was briefly one of many largest donors to Democrats. Amid the allure offensive, Bankman-Fried even performed an unsanctioned interview with conservative TV host Tucker Carlson from jail in March 2025.
A White Home spokesperson pointed Fortune to remarks made by Trump in January, during which the President stated he had no plans to pardon Bankman-Fried, amongst different high-profile figures, together with ousted Venezuelan chief Nicolás Maduro and former New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez.
The Division of Justice didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
An uphill battle
Bankman-Fried’s clemency bid comes amid a wave of pardons that Trump has doled out to not solely high-profile crypto figures—amongst them Binance founder Changpeng Zhao and Silk Highway creator Ross Ulbricht—but in addition different white-collar criminals.
In 2023, Bankman-Fried was convicted of fraud and later sentenced to 25 years in jail for orchestrating one of many largest monetary crimes in historical past, secretly diverting billions in buyer funds from the crypto alternate FTX to his crypto hedge fund, Alameda Analysis.
Even now, the FTX cofounder maintains that he wasn’t responsible, pushing his case on social media and within the courts. In April, a federal choose denied Bankman-Fried’s movement for a brand new trial, leaving the pardon request as one of many crypto convict’s final remaining authorized recourses. If granted, it could clear the civil {and professional} penalties that usually comply with a federal felony conviction, although it could not wipe his felony report clear.
Following his personal conviction for stealing cash from his purchasers, Michael Avenatti, who represented grownup movie star Stormy Daniels in a lawsuit in opposition to Trump, shared a cell with Bankman-Fried on the Terminal Island federal jail in California. Avenatti isn’t sympathetic to Bankman-Fried’s appeals.
“Over the course of my 55 years on the planet, I’ve had the great fortune of assembly folks from all walks of life… however I can say no doubt that Sam Bankman-Fried is likely one of the most smug, least self-aware people I’ve met in my life,” he informed Fortune.
A lawyer for Bankman-Fried didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
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