TL;DRSam Bankman-Fried has formally filed for a presidential pardon from federal prison, where he is serving 25 years for FTX fraud. Trump previously said he has “no intention” of granting one.
Sam Bankman-Fried has formally submitted a request for a presidential pardon to Donald Trump, according to records on the US Department of Justice Office of the Pardon Attorney website. The filing, listed as a “pardon after completion of sentence,” was submitted in 2026 and is pending.
Bankman-Fried, 34, is serving a 25-year sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Hazelton, West Virginia. He was convicted in November 2023 on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy after a jury found he orchestrated the theft of billions of dollars in customer funds from FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange he co-founded, and its affiliated trading firm Alameda Research.
The odds
Trump said in a January interview with The New York Times that he has “no intention of pardoning” Bankman-Fried. He grouped him with other high-profile figures whose pardon requests he said he planned to reject.
