Sam Bankman-Fried, the imprisoned former CEO of FTX, is hoping that President Trump will pardon him. In a recent interview, he portrayed his own conviction as part of the anti-crypto overreach of Biden’s Presidency.
However, while Bankman-Fried was a free man and a billionaire, he donated millions against Trump in the 2020 election. Securing a pardon under these circumstances may be a long shot.
Will Trump Pardon Sam Bankman-Fried?
Sam Bankman-Fried, one of the biggest criminals in crypto history, is trying to get out of federal prison. He has consistently petitioned for his release since the legal battle begun in 2022, but with little success.
Now, however, Bankman-Fried is looking for a new strategy, hoping that President Trump will pardon him.
“My judge, Judge Kaplan, is one of Trump’s judges in New York, which is sort of part of a larger fight going on between the incoming Trump DOJ and what they see from Biden’s DOJ. I know there have been discussions of a pardon… Given what President Trump has seen of the DOJ and its politicization, I think there is a real conversation happening around that.” says Bankman-Fried.
Before FTX came crashing down in 2022, Bankman-Fried was one of the biggest figures in the international crypto space. He was a major Democratic donor, contributing to Joe Biden’s 2020 victory over Donald Trump, but all his political capital disappeared with his empire.
Recently, prosecutors made an exception for him when announcing an end to crypto crackdowns.
However, now that Trump is in charge, this may present a new opportunity. He pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, whose decade-long imprisonment was a cause célèbre in the crypto community after petitions from Ulbricht’s mother. Bankman-Fried’s own parents noticed this and began asking President Trump to pardon their son last month.
In his first interview from prison with The New York Sun, Bankman-Fried was very light on directly praising Trump in his pardon requests.
Instead, he acknowledged his past ties with the Biden administration and claimed that he became dissatisfied with its crypto policies. He alleged that his own conviction was a casualty of this government overreach, which Trump can correct:
“I viewed myself at the time as sort of center-left, and that’s not how I view myself anymore. By 2022, I had spent a bunch of time in Washington, D.C., working with legislators, regulators, and the executive branch, and I became really frustrated and disappointed with what I saw of the Biden administration and the Democratic Party. Particularly on crypto policy, the Biden administration was just incredibly destructive and difficult to work with. I think my case fits into that broader context,” Bankman-Fried claimed.
It’s presently unclear whether this framing will do much to move President Trump. Although Bankman-Fried claimed that he also donated to Republicans, he nonetheless directly backed Trump’s opponent with millions of dollars.
In other words, although Bankman-Fried maintains his innocence, a pardon seems like a real long shot.
Bankman-Fried Still Claims to be Innocent
Sam Bankman-Fried says that the prosecutors pushed some “very big misinformation during his trial.” They also provided misleading information about his luxury apartment complexes, according to the FTX founder.
He also firmly denies that FTX and Alameda Research were bankrupt or insolvent.
“Both companies had enough to make good on all their liabilities. What happened was a liquidity crisis, a run on the bank. We had more in assets than in debt, but all of a sudden there was a big demand on cash delivery immediately,” he claims.
Regardless of his claims, Bankman-Fried’s colleagues, Gary Wang and Nishad Singh, as well as Caroline Ellison, testified against him during the trial. All of them received much lighter sentences due to their cooperation.
Although the founder made some remarks about his mistakes, he claimed his sentencing was exaggerated. However, the crypto community might not agree.
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