Convicted Crypto CEO Sam Bankman-Fried Asks President Trump for a Pardon

Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of the (now-defunct) crypto exchange FTX, is begging President Trump to pardon him.

The former CEO is currently serving out a 25-year sentence in federal prison after being found guilty of defrauding customers of billions of dollars.

According to DOJ records, Bankman-Fried has filed a formal request for a presidential pardon.

Here are the details:

FTX cofounder Sam Bankman-Fried has filed a formal request for a presidential pardon, asking President Donald Trump to erase the estimated fraud charges tied to the crypto exchange’s implosion.
Read more: https://t.co/OUmJvH8GIQ
Photo: Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images pic.twitter.com/XvJLPuIEHu

— Forbes (@Forbes) June 8, 2026

Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has formally sought a presidential pardon as he continues serving a 25-year prison sentence for fraud and conspiracy convictions tied to one of the largest financial scandals in U.S. history.…

— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) June 9, 2026

Here’s a look at Bankman-Fried in prison with other inmates:

Sam Bankman-Fried formally applied for a presidential pardon

SBF is serving 25 years in prison for fraud and conspiracy following the collapse of crypto exchange FTX in 2022 pic.twitter.com/E7jCBlKDX0

— Exec Sum (@exec_sum) June 8, 2026

Along with asking for a pardon, Sam Bankman-Fried is still refusing to accept any responsibility for his crimes.

While speaking to Fox Business recently, he doubled down on claiming that he did nothing wrong.

Here’s an excerpt from that jailhouse interview:

Speaking exclusively to FOX Business correspondent Susan Li, the convicted FTX founder said he “absolutely” wants a presidential pardon, while declining to say whether his family is currently lobbying the administration on his behalf.

“I assume that you would want a pardon from the White House?” Li asked Bankman-Fried over the phone.

“Absolutely,” he responded. “It would be obviously, you know, ultimately up to the president, not up to me.”

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“But have, say, your parents or anyone that you’ve been in contact with at all?” Li asked.

“I can’t speak for them,” Bankman-Fried said.

In March 2024, the former crypto king was sentenced to 25 years in prison after he was found guilty on two counts of wire fraud and five counts of conspiracy following the collapse of his crypto empire FTX in November 2022. The court also found that FTX customers lost $8 billion, FTX’s equity investors lost $1.7 billion, and lenders to the Alameda Research hedge fund Bankman-Fried founded lost $1.3 billion.

Despite his conviction, Bankman-Fried continued to argue that his prosecution was unjust, pointing to the fact that bankruptcy payouts have increased due in part to the recovery in cryptocurrency markets.

“I didn’t steal user funds either,” he told Li. “Customers have been repaid now 170% or so on their deposits. It’s one of the very few cases where the platform was over-collateralized, where customers were more than made whole. And yet there was, you know, not just a criminal investigation, but a prosecution. And, you know, dozens of years of sentence[s].”

“I can only tell you what I think and, you know, ultimately, customers have been repaid again nearly twice what they had on the platform,” Bankman-Fried said, “and it’s a great disservice to them that it has taken three years.”

It’s not likely that Bankman-Fried — who, by the way, was one of Democrats’ biggest donors — gets his wish.

Back in January, President Trump made it clear that he has no intention of pardoning the former crypto CEO.

Per CNBC:

Trump said in a January interview with The New York Times that he has “no intention of pardoning” several high-profile people including Bankman-Fried.

Trump has issued more than 1,400 pardons and commutations so far in his second term, according to the Department of Justice, including more than 1,200 Jan. 6-related cases. During his first term, he granted 238 pardons and commutations in total.