The White House has issued a definitive statement confirming that former President Donald Trump will not grant clemency to Sam Bankman-Fried, the imprisoned founder of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX. A White House spokesperson stated that Trump has absolutely no plans to pardon Bankman-Fried and will not change his mind on the matter, a position reportedly made clear in an interview with The New York Times as early as January.
This decision comes despite Bankman-Fried's recent and intense public campaign to secure a pardon. While serving his sentence following a March 2024 conviction on multiple counts of fraud and conspiracy, Bankman-Fried has shifted his political stance. Once a significant donor to Democratic campaigns, including a $5.2 million contribution to Joe Biden's 2020 campaign, he has recently adopted a pro-Trump posture. On social media platform X, he has praised Trump while accusing his trial judge, Lewis Kaplan, of political bias, in what observers interpret as a direct appeal for a pardon similar to those Trump granted to other figures in the digital asset industry, such as Binance founder Changpeng Zhao and BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes.
The White House's firm rejection indicates this strategy has failed. The spokesperson suggested the president's stance on Bankman-Fried would also apply to other prominent figures like former Senator Robert Menendez and former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
Bankman-Fried's conviction stems from the misappropriation of customer deposits at FTX, which once boasted a $32 billion valuation before filing for bankruptcy in November 2022. The exchange's collapse led to the near-total devaluation of its native token, FTT, and wiped out Bankman-Fried's personal fortune, once estimated at $26.5 billion. The event triggered increased regulatory scrutiny of centralized cryptocurrency platforms and damaged public confidence in the industry. Bankman-Fried continues to challenge his conviction through the appeals process.
