Sam Bankman-Fried filed a clemency petition with Donald Trump seeking a presidential pardon, hoping to cut short the 25-year prison sentence he is serving for fraud tied to the FTX collapse. But Trump quickly shut that door: the former president instructed Bankman-Fried not to expect a pardon, according to people familiar with the matter. The petition, submitted this week, leaned heavily on speculation about Trump's purported history of crypto-related pardons — a gamble that now looks like a long shot.
The petition and the response
Bankman-Fried's legal team forwarded the clemency request to Trump's office in early June, arguing that the FTX founder's cooperation with authorities and the unique circumstances of the case warranted executive clemency. The move relied on an unproven assumption: that Trump might be sympathetic to figures tied to the crypto industry, given his past statements about digital assets and his own NFT ventures. But Trump's reply was blunt — he told Bankman-Fried not to expect a pardon, according to two people with direct knowledge of the exchange. No further explanation was given, and the White House did not comment.
Why SBF thought it might work
The gamble wasn't random. Trump has occasionally floated pardons for crypto-related offenders, though never followed through. Bankman-Fried's team cited that rhetorical history in the petition, along with his post-conviction behavior — he has been cooperating with bankruptcy proceedings and has not appealed the verdict. Still, the 25-year sentence is among the longest handed down in a crypto fraud case, and few observers expected Trump to intervene. The denial makes clear that the speculation alone wasn't enough to move the needle.
What happens now
Bankman-Fried remains at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, serving a sentence that runs until 2051. The clemency petition is effectively dead — Trump's instruction means no pardon is coming from that avenue. His legal team could explore other forms of relief, such as a sentence reduction motion in federal court or a traditional presidential pardon from the current administration. But those options face long odds. For now, Bankman-Fried's best hope was just rejected by the very person he bet on.
