Convicted cryptocurrency fraudster and disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has formally submitted a pardon petition to U.S. President Donald Trump, official government records confirm. The 34-year-old, who is currently serving a 25-year federal prison sentence after being found guilty on multiple corruption and fraud charges, has his request listed as pending in the public database of the Department of Justice’s Office of the Pardon Attorney.
The development comes months after Trump made his position clear in a January interview with *The New York Times*, where he stated he had no intention of granting a pardon to Bankman-Fried. Despite this early refusal hint, the convicted founder moved forward with the formal clemency application, marking the latest chapter in a high-profile financial scandal that shook the global crypto industry.
Since his inauguration for his second term last year, the Republican president has exercised his clemency power repeatedly in favor of white-collar offenders, drawing ongoing public and media attention. Most recently, he pardoned a former Republican U.S. representative from Indiana who had been convicted of insider trading, a decision that fueled speculation about what cases he may prioritize for clemency going forward.
Once hailed as a wunderkind of the digital finance space, Bankman-Fried built his empire at a staggering pace. After co-founding FTX as a small startup crypto trading platform in 2019, he grew the exchange into the world’s second-largest player in the sector, amassing a multi-billion dollar personal fortune before he turned 30. That meteoric ascent collapsed spectacularly in November 2022, when a massive bank run of customer withdrawals exposed that roughly $8 billion in client funds had been secretly and illegally diverted from FTX to Bankman-Fried’s private hedge fund, Alameda Research.
A federal jury in New York convicted him on seven counts of fraud, embezzlement, and criminal conspiracy in November 2023. In addition to his pardon petition, Bankman-Fried has also filed an appeal challenging the guilty verdict, marking the next step in his ongoing legal battle.