Sam Bankman-Fried’s parents are reportedly seeking a Presidential pardon for him from Donald Trump, a Bloomberg report says. Stanford Law School Professors Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried reportedly had meetings in recent weeks with lawyers and other figures considered to be in Trump’s orbit about clemency for their son, Bloomberg reports.
JUST IN: Sam Bankman-Fried’s parents explore seeking a pardon from President Trump for their son, Bloomberg reports. pic.twitter.com/FMVUpaEOUf
— Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) January 30, 2025
The founder of the collapsed FTX exchange was convicted last fall and is serving a 25-year sentence in prison. FTX’s collapse is one of the biggest controversies in the history of the digital asset sector. Bankman-Fried was convicted by a jury on seven counts of fraud in 2023. Specifically, those charges include his thievery of customer assets when running the cryptocurrency exchange, and his deceit with the firm’s investors and creditors. Altogether, Bankman-Fried was responsible for around $8 billion in customer assets being stolen.
Since his inauguration, Donald Trump has already used his pardon power on notable figures in the crypto sector. Most recently, he pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who was previously serving a prison sentence. The pardons have encouraged a rush among white-collar crypto defendants eager to be pardoned next. Sam Bankman-Fried has maintained he is innocent since the ruling and may be happy to accept a pardon from the new US president.
Jeffrey Grant, who runs a legal and advisory firm in New York for white-collar defendants, said he’s already received approximately 100 inquiries about pardons. “We have been hearing from people in prison, from people recently sentenced who haven’t reported to the Bureau of Prisons yet, from people who have been indicted,” Grant said. “They are looking for somebody who knows somebody.”
SBF has been serving his sentence at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York. His parents have yet to publicly comment on the reports.