Sam Bankman-Fried, co-founder and former CEO of collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, launched a new legal effort Monday by filing a request for a presidential pardon from President Trump.
Bankman-Fried’s request for pardon
Bloomberg reported that Bankman-Fried submitted a request to the US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) clemency office, seeking what the site describes as a “post-sentence pardon.”
Later Monday, in an exclusive conversation with FOX Business correspondent Susan Li, Bankman-Fried said he “absolutely” wants a presidential pardon. When Li asked him if he would consider requesting one from the White House, he agreed.
“Absolutely,” he said, adding that the decision was ultimately up to the president rather than him. When asked if his family or people he has been in contact with were lobbying the administration on his behalf, the FTX co-founder declined to confirm, saying, “I can’t speak for them.” »
In March 2024, Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of two counts of wire fraud and five counts of conspiracy related to the fall of his crypto empire.
The court also found that FTX customers lost $8 billion, stock investors associated with FTX lost $1.7 billion, and lenders to the hedge fund Alameda Research – Bankman-Fried’s company – lost $1.3 billion.
FTX token rebounds 45%
Despite his conviction and lengthy sentence, Bankman-Fried continued to argue that the prosecution of him was unfair. He told Li that he believed FTX’s customers had finally been repaid and pointed to improving bankruptcy outcomes that he said were helped, at least in part, by a recovery in cryptocurrency markets.
“I also did not steal user funds,” he said, adding that customers have been refunded, “now about 170% of their deposits.” He described the situation as one of the rare cases where the platform was allegedly over-collateralized, meaning customers were more than completely cured, but he said prosecutors still pursued criminal charges.
This decision notably triggered a sharp rise in the price of FTX’s native token, FTT. On Monday, it saw a massive 45% rally, reaching around $0.33 at the time of writing. However, the token’s rally still leaves it 99.5% below its all-time high of $84, reached during the exchange’s peak trading.
Featured image created with OpenArt; chart from TradingView.com
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