Sam Bankman-Fried, serving 25 years for fraud, formally asks Trump for a pardon

Sam Bankman-Fried, the convicted cryptocurrency founder serving a 25-year federal sentence for fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering, has formally petitioned President Donald Trump for a pardon. The request appears on the U.S. Justice Department's Office of the Pardon Attorney website, where it is listed as "currently pending," the Daily Caller reported.

The filing, submitted sometime in 2026, is categorized as a "Pardon after Completion of sentence." That phrasing alone raises questions, Bankman-Fried has barely begun a quarter-century behind bars for one of the largest financial frauds in American history. Yet there his name sits on the DOJ website, waiting for presidential consideration.

The move comes despite Trump stating plainly in January that he would not pardon Bankman-Fried. In an expansive interview with The New York Times, Trump named the former FTX chief executive among several figures, including deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, who would not receive clemency.

Bankman-Fried says he wants it

Bankman-Fried has not been shy about his desire for a pardon. Speaking to Fox Business on Monday, he was asked directly whether he wanted one. His answer was immediate.

"Absolutely. It would be obviously, you know, ultimately up to the president, not up to me."

That single word, "absolutely", captures the audacity of the ask. Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas in 2022 after the spectacular collapse of FTX, his cryptocurrency exchange. Federal officials said he orchestrated a fraud scheme through FTX and its affiliated trading firm, Alameda Research, misusing what amounted to billions of dollars in customer funds. A jury convicted him on seven charges. A federal judge sentenced him to 25 years, according to the DOJ's sentencing announcement.

Now he wants out.

Republican lawmakers push back hard

The pardon request has drawn sharp opposition from Republican senators, including those most enthusiastic about the cryptocurrency industry Bankman-Fried once claimed to champion.

Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio, a Republican known for his pro-crypto stance, did not hold back. Speaking to POLITICO, Moreno said:

"The guy's a piece of s***. The guy shouldn't be pardoned. The guy should go to jail for a long, long time."

Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, widely known as the "crypto queen" of the U.S. Senate, told POLITICO she hopes Trump will not give in. Lummis emphasized that Bankman-Fried had "hurt a lot of people."

That two of the Senate's most prominent crypto advocates want no part of clemency for Bankman-Fried tells you something about how thoroughly he burned the industry's credibility. These are not anti-crypto regulators looking to make a point. They are allies of the sector who see Bankman-Fried as a fraud who set back legitimate digital-asset policy by years.

The political donations that complicate the picture

Bankman-Fried's case has always carried a political charge. Before his arrest, he reportedly donated to Democratic causes, making him a major financial backer of the left during a period when Washington was debating how to regulate cryptocurrency. He also reportedly donated to One Nation, a group tied to then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

The bipartisan spread of his money did not save him from prosecution. But it did raise questions about how a 30-year-old crypto executive managed to buy so much access so quickly, and whether the billions flowing through FTX were, in part, laundered into the political system.

None of that history makes a pardon more plausible. If anything, it makes the request more brazen. Bankman-Fried funneled money across party lines, presided over a fraud that wiped out ordinary investors, and now asks the president he never meaningfully supported to wipe his record clean.

Trump's pardon record and the pending question

Since taking office in January 2025 for his second term, Trump has issued over 1,400 pardons, CNBC reported. That figure dwarfs the clemency output of recent predecessors and reflects a president willing to use the pardon power aggressively.

But volume does not mean indiscriminate use. Trump drew a clear line in January when he told The New York Times that Bankman-Fried would not receive a pardon. The White House has not, as of the Daily Caller's reporting, signaled any change in that position.

The DOJ's Office of the Pardon Attorney lists the request as pending. That is a procedural status, not a signal of favorable review. Pardon petitions can sit on the books for years without action. The mere existence of a filing does not mean anyone in the executive branch is seriously weighing it.

What the filing does not say

Several details remain unclear. The exact date Bankman-Fried submitted his request in 2026 is not publicly specified. His stated reason, if he provided one beyond the bare petition, has not been disclosed. No supporting documents, counsel names, or case docket numbers tied to the filing have surfaced in public reporting.

The "Pardon after Completion of sentence" label is itself unusual. Bankman-Fried has decades left on his sentence. Whether this category reflects a legal strategy, a procedural formality, or a misunderstanding of the process is an open question.

The scale of the fraud

It is worth pausing on what Bankman-Fried was convicted of doing. Federal officials described a scheme in which customer deposits at FTX were funneled to Alameda Research, his trading firm, and used for purposes customers never authorized. The losses ran into the billions. When FTX collapsed in November 2022, its new chief executive said the company was making "every effort to secure all assets" amid reports of unauthorized transactions potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Ordinary people, retail investors who trusted FTX with their savings, lost money they may never recover. That is the backdrop against which Bankman-Fried now says "absolutely" to the question of whether he wants a pardon.

Senators Moreno and Lummis understand this. Their opposition is not anti-crypto posturing. It is a recognition that the victims of FTX deserve to see the man who defrauded them serve his sentence.

A test of accountability

The pardon power is broad. The Constitution gives the president nearly unlimited authority to grant clemency, and Trump has used that authority more than most. But the power to pardon is not a mandate to pardon. Every clemency decision sends a signal about what conduct the executive branch considers forgivable.

Bankman-Fried stole billions, lied to investors, spread money across the political landscape, and got caught. He was tried, convicted, and sentenced under the law. Republican senators who champion the very industry he exploited want him to stay in prison.

Trump said in January he would not pardon Bankman-Fried. The pending DOJ filing changes nothing about the facts of the case. It only confirms that the man convicted of one of the biggest financial frauds in a generation still believes the rules do not apply to him.

Some people ask for forgiveness. Others just ask for a favor. The difference matters.