Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and former CEO of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has formally applied for a presidential pardon from former President Donald Trump in 2026, categorized as a "pardon after completion of sentence" [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6].
Bankman-Fried is currently serving a 25-year federal prison sentence handed down in 2024 after his conviction on seven counts of fraud, conspiracy, money laundering, and embezzlement related to the misuse of billions of dollars in customer funds at FTX and its sister company Alameda Research [1, 7, 2, 4, 5, 6]. U.S. Attorney Damian Williams called the case "one of the largest financial fraud cases in American history" [4].
The crimes involved diverting customer funds to Alameda for risky investments, political donations, and real estate purchases [1, 7, 4, 8]. Bankman-Fried was convicted by a New York federal jury in November 2023 and sentenced by Judge Lewis Kaplan in 2024 to 25 years in prison, also ordered to forfeit about $11 billion in assets [4, 8].
Bankman-Fried has also filed an appeal seeking a new trial while pursuing a pardon that would forgive his crimes after sentence completion and restore civil rights like voting and employment eligibility, though it would not erase his convictions [1, 7, 4, 8, 6]. Bankman-Fried expressed eagerness for a pardon, stating he is "very eager to obtain a presidential pardon" [4].
President Trump said in a January 2026 interview that he does not intend to pardon Bankman-Fried, stating, "I have no intention of pardoning Sam Bankman-Fried" [7, 3, 4, 6]. The White House declined to comment on the pardon request [1, 3, 4].
FTX reached a peak valuation of around $32 billion before its 2022 bankruptcy, with Bankman-Fried's personal net worth estimated as high as $26 billion at its height [4, 8]. He was once a significant donor to Democratic campaigns but showed support for Trump during his prison term on social media [4, 8, 9].
Bankman-Fried's pardon filing joins over 20,000 pending requests at the Department of Justice's Office of the Pardon Attorney [1, 3]. Trump granted 147 pardons and commutations during his second term through 2026, including for multiple white-collar criminals and January 6 participants [1, 2, 3].
The pardon filing became publicly known on June 8, 2026, marking the latest development in Bankman-Fried’s ongoing legal battles related to his role in FTX’s collapse [2, 3, 5, 6].
