FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried applies for pardon from US President Trump over billion-dollar fraud

FTX co-founder and former crypto king Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison two years ago for defrauding customers, which led to the collapse of his crypto empire. Now, over two years later, Sam has formally applied for a presidential pardon from US President Donald Trump.

According to the Justice Department’s Pardon Attorney Office website. The application seeks a “pardon after completion of sentence” for Bankman-Fried. In recent months, Sam has been actively showing support for Donald Trump on social media.

In a recent interview with Fox Business, when Sam was asked about wanting a pardon from Trump, he replied, “Absolutely. It would be obviously, you know, ultimately up to the president, not up to me."

Donald Trump says no plans to pardon Sam Bankman-Fried

While the FTX co-founder has often expressed his interest in receiving a pardon, President Trump told the New York Times in January that he had no plans to pardon Sam.

Though at the time of writing, the US President has not commented on Sam Bankman-Fried’s formal request. As per reports, Sam filed his request through the usual Justice Department process used by thousands of people every year.

As per a report from Bloomberg, Trump has often bypassed that route in his second term, while a wider pardon market has grown around cases being prepared for White House consideration, with some lawyers reportedly charging upwards of $1 million. Bankman-Fried’s filing does not say who submitted the petition on his behalf.

He is also awaiting a decision from New York’s federal appeals court on his attempt to have his conviction and sentence set aside.

Why is Sam Bankman-Fried in jail?

Bankman-Fried was sentenced in March 2024 to 25 years in prison after he was convicted over the fraud linked to the collapse of FTX in November 2022. The crypto king was found guilty of using customer funds to make investments without their permission.

As per reports, the fraud at FTX cost lenders, customers and investors roughly $10 billion – $8 billion of which was directly from customers. FTX’s equity investors lost $1.7 billion and lenders to Alameda Research, the hedge fund Sam founded, lost $1.3 billion.

Though Bankman-Fried has again challenged the ruling. He told Fox Business, “I didn’t steal user funds either.” The FTX co-founder added, “Customers have been repaid now 170 per cent or so on their deposits.”

The former Democratic megadonor has tried to recast his public image while voicing support for the president from a low-security prison in California. Posts on his X account (through a proxy) have praised Trump’s actions in relation to the Iran war and some pardon-related decisions.

An NBC News analysis cited by January 2026, more than half of the individual pardons granted in Trump’s second term had gone to people convicted of white-collar crimes such as money laundering, bank fraud and wire fraud, even though many of those pardons did not follow the formal Justice Department application route.

Before FTX collapsed, Sam Bankman-Fried made a series of investments that could’ve made him one of the richest people today. This included investments in Anthropic, Solana, Robinhood, and Elon Musk’s SpaceX.