FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison, said he would like to receive a presidential pardon from US President Donald Trump. 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 obvious, you know, ultimately up to the president, not up to me.”
In March 2024, SBF 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.
In the same conversation, Sam Bankman-Fried addressed the sentencing and insisted that he did not commit fraud. “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].”
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“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 added, “and it’s a great disservice to them that it has taken three years.”
Early last year, Sam Bankman-Fried’s parents reportedly sought a Presidential pardon for him from Donald Trump, although the call went unanswered. Since his inauguration, Donald Trump has already used his pardon power to grant clemency to notable figures in the crypto sector. Therefore, it’s not entirely out of question for the President to pardon someone such as SBF.