Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of collapsed crypto exchange FTX, formally asked for a presidential pardon from President Donald Trump while serving a 25-year prison sentence for fraud and conspiracy.
The clemency application appeared Monday in records kept by the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney. The case is listed as pending, meaning a clemency petition has been opened and is under review. The office said details of the ongoing reviews have not been publicly disclosed.
The former crypto executive, known by his initials SBF, was convicted in 2023 of carrying out a fraud and conspiracy scheme that ultimately destroyed FTX, once one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world.
The company collapsed in November 2022 after CoinDesk reported on balance sheet concerns involving affiliated trading firm Alameda Research, exposing an $8 billion gap in FTX’s accounts and freezing customer deposits.
Bankman-Fried confirmed her interest in clemency during a recent interview with Fox Business.
“I take it you would like an apology from the White House?” Fox Business correspondent Susan Lee asked him over the phone. “Absolutely,” Bankman-Fried replied. “Obviously, you know, it will ultimately be up to the president, not me.”
He declined to say whether his family members were lobbying the administration on his behalf. SBF’s parents, Stanford Law School professors Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, have previously reached out to individuals in Trump’s orbit to explore a possible presidential pardon for their son. It is unclear whether any direct discussions took place with White House officials.
The pardon request follows months of public statements by Bankman-Fried that are in line with Trump’s positions. Writing through intermediaries using prison-sanctioned communications, he has praised the President’s decision to launch strikes against Iran, argued that Trump helped “save” the Securities and Exchange Commission by replacing former Chairman Gary Gensler with Paul Atkins, and highlighted low gasoline prices during Trump’s tenure.
He appears to be following a playbook written to try to ingratiate himself with Republicans after being seen as a Democratic mega-donor during the 2020 election. This playbook included items such as joining Tucker Carlson’s show, which he did the previous year.
The outreach has attracted attention as Trump has shown willingness to pardon high-profile defendants, including several figures associated with the crypto industry. Since returning to office, Trump has pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, and Bitmex co-founders.
Still, Trump’s support is far from assured. In a January interview with The New York Times, the President said that Bankman-Fried should not count on receiving clemency, grouping her with several other high-profile defendants whom he did not intend to pardon.
Currently, Bankman-Fried remains in prison while her appeal efforts and clemency petition go through different channels.