Sam Bankman-Fried, the FTX co-founder serving a 25-year federal prison sentence for fraud and conspiracy, formally submitted a clemency petition to the Department of Justice's Office of the Pardon Attorney on June 8, requesting a "pardon after completion of sentence" from President Donald Trump [1][2]. In a Fox Business interview the same day, Bankman-Fried confirmed he "absolutely" wants a pardon [1][3]. The White House, responding to the filing, said it has no plans to grant one [1][2].
The application invokes the presidential pardon power under Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution, which grants the executive unreviewable authority to grant clemency for federal offenses. Bankman-Fried was convicted in November 2023 in the Southern District of New York on 7 counts, including wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, arising from the collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange FTX [1]. The exchange's implosion in late 2022 wiped out billions in customer funds and triggered parallel civil enforcement actions by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission [2]. He was sentenced in March 2024 [1].
The formal petition routes through the Office of the Pardon Attorney, the DOJ component that reviews clemency applications and forwards a recommendation to the White House Counsel's Office, though the president is not bound by that recommendation. Bankman-Fried's direct criminal appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit remains pending, meaning a parallel judicial avenue for sentence reduction or reversal is still open [1][2]. A successful appeal could moot or complicate the clemency track, while a pardon, if granted before the appeal resolves, would not expunge the conviction absent broader relief [3].
The filing arrives as the Trump administration has used clemency extensively for defendants in politically salient cases, drawing scrutiny from legal observers over the criteria applied. Bankman-Fried's political history is complicated: he was a significant donor to Democratic candidates and causes before FTX's collapse, and his public statements since conviction have included overtures to figures across the political spectrum [1][2]. Whether that background aids or impedes the application is an open question, particularly given the White House's immediate public rejection of the petition.
The Office of the Pardon Attorney has no statutory deadline to act on the application. The Second Circuit appeal timeline is not publicly set. Both tracks will proceed on their own schedules, and neither outcome forecloses the other in the near term [1][2].