Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former chief executive of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has applied for a presidential pardon while serving a 25-year prison sentence for fraud and conspiracy linked to the collapse of his crypto business.
The application was submitted through the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of the Pardon Attorney and is listed as a request for a “Pardon after Completion of Sentence.”
Bankman-Fried, 34, became one of the most recognizable figures in the cryptocurrency industry after launching FTX in 2019. The exchange quickly grew into the world’s second-largest crypto trading platform, helping him build a multibillion-dollar fortune before its sudden collapse in November 2022.
Federal prosecutors accused him of directing billions of dollars in customer deposits from FTX to Alameda Research, a cryptocurrency trading firm he also controlled. According to prosecutors, the funds were used for risky investments, political donations, business expenses and luxury real estate purchases without customers’ knowledge or approval.
A federal jury in New York found Bankman-Fried guilty in November 2023 on seven criminal counts, including wire fraud, securities fraud, commodities fraud and conspiracy. He was later sentenced to 25 years in prison and ordered to forfeit billions of dollars.
His legal team has continued to challenge the conviction. In April 2026, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected a motion for a new trial that Bankman-Fried had written himself, ruling that the witnesses cited in the request were not newly discovered.
“None of the witnesses, for example, is ‘newly discovered,'” Judge Kaplan wrote. “Bankman-Fried well before trial knew all three of them and purportedly knew also what he hoped they would say were they to testify. He could have obtained or at least sought to compel their testimony. But he did neither.”
The pardon request comes despite comments by U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this year indicating that he had no plans to grant clemency to the former crypto executive.
A presidential pardon forgives a federal offense but does not overturn a conviction or declare a person innocent. Bankman-Fried’s application remains pending before the Office of the Pardon Attorney.
The FTX collapse remains one of the largest failures in the history of the cryptocurrency industry, wiping out billions of dollars in customer assets and triggering increased regulatory scrutiny of digital asset companies around the world.
