Photo: Lam Yik/Bloomberg
Sam Bankman-Fried formally asks Trump for clemency over multi-billion dollar crypto fraud conviction
Bankman-Fried's clemency plea highlights ongoing debates over presidential pardon powers and their impact on justice for financial crimes.
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Add us on Google by Vivian Nguyen Jun. 8, 2026Sam Bankman-Fried, the co-founder of FTX, has formally applied for a presidential pardon more than two years after his conviction tied to the multibillion-dollar collapse of the crypto exchange.
Records on the Justice Department’s Pardon Attorney Office website, which was first reported by Bloomberg Tax, show that the 34-year-old requested a “pardon after completion of sentence.”
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The application comes as Bankman-Fried continues efforts to obtain executive clemency, using social media and interviews with conservative news outlets to make his case.
His request arrives amid President Donald Trump’s expansive use of presidential pardon powers during his second term, which has already extended relief to numerous white-collar defendants.
This is a developing story.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Vivian Nguyen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.