Bankman-Fried Seeks Presidential Pardon Amid FTX Fraud Sentence
Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of crypto exchange FTX, has filed a presidential pardon petition while serving his 25-year prison sentence for fraud related to the collapse of FTX.
The clemency petition was filed on June 8 and is categorized as 'pardon after completion of sentence' on the US Department of Justice's Office of the Pardon Attorney website.
Bankman-Fried, 34, has been serving his sentence at a low-security federal correctional facility in Santa Barbara, California, since being convicted on seven counts of fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering related to the misuse of customer funds at FTX and its affiliated trading firm, Alameda Research.
In an effort to court President Trump, Bankman-Fried has spent months publicly aligning with his positions through prison-approved communications, including praising Trump's decision to authorize strikes against Iran and arguing that replacing former SEC Chair Gary Gensler with Paul Atkins was a net positive for the crypto industry.