Sam Bankman-Fried, the former cryptocurrency billionaire serving a 25-year federal prison sentence for fraud, has applied for a pardon from President Donald Trump, according to records from the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney.
The application, filed as a “pardon after completion of sentence,” would forgive Bankman-Fried’s conviction after he serves his full term. The request places the disgraced FTX founder among more than 20,000 pending pardon and commutation applications before the Trump administration, which has issued a series of high-profile pardons during the president’s second term.
A representative of the White House declined to comment on the application, according to a report. A lawyer for Bankman-Fried did not respond to a request for comment.
Bankman-Fried, 34, was sentenced in 2024 after a jury convicted him on multiple federal charges related to FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange he founded and led, and its affiliated trading firm Alameda Research. The company collapsed in 2022 amid allegations that Bankman-Fried had used customer deposits for personal investments and to repay debts. He has long maintained his innocence and is currently pursuing an appeal of his sentence.
The application is for a “pardon after completion of sentence,” a form of clemency that forgives the conviction after the sentence is served, rather than a commutation, which shortens the sentence itself. Bankman-Fried has not requested a commutation.
Trump was asked earlier this year whether he would pardon Bankman-Fried and indicated at the time that he would not, according to a report.
During his second term, Trump has issued pardons to hundreds of people who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, former members of his staff accused of crimes, the founder of a dark web marketplace, and the leader of another cryptocurrency platform, Binance. MSI previously reported that Trump also pardoned a former Republican congressman convicted of insider trading.