Convicted FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) is actively pursuing a media and political strategy from prison, aligning himself with former President Donald Trump and criticizing the Biden administration's regulatory approach in a bid for a potential presidential pardon. This strategy mirrors a 12-step media plan drafted shortly after his arrest in January 2023, which included targeted interviews and outreach to conservative media outlets.
Bankman-Fried's legal team is currently appealing his conviction, arguing the judicial process was flawed. However, legal experts consider both his appeal and a separate pro se retrial request for 2026 as unlikely to succeed under standard appellate procedures. With a projected release date in the 2040s, a presidential pardon is seen as his most realistic path to reduce his 25-year sentence for misappropriating $8 billion in customer funds.
Recent communications from prison, relayed through a proxy, show SBF stating he became a Republican in 2022 and praising Trump's cryptocurrency policies. He has contrasted this with criticism of the Biden-era Department of Justice (DOJ) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which the crypto industry has accused of being hostile and driving companies offshore.
Despite this political maneuvering, President Trump told The New York Times in a January interview that he has no plans to pardon Bankman-Fried, also ruling out pardons for other figures. The Trump administration has, however, initiated a broader overhaul of the crypto regulatory landscape, including replacing former SEC Chair Gary Gensler with pro-innovation successor Paul Atkins and aiming to make the U.S. the "crypto capital of the planet."
Supporters of SBF and other crypto figures hope this new regulatory environment will lead to a review of past prosecutions, arguing that many "crimes" resulted from confusing rules. Critics warn that excessive deregulation could lead to more collapses like FTX's.
