Hopes of Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) receiving a pardon have been shattered. The US’ president, Donald Trump, confirmed in a current interview with The New York Instances that he wouldn’t challenge a presidential pardon to the imprisoned FTX founder.
The newest remark got here a few yr after SBF and his mother and father sought a pardon from the president.
Trump Shatters SBF’s Pardon Hopes
Final yr, Trump issued pardons to a number of high-profile crypto figures. These embrace BitMEX’s Arthur Hayes and Benjamin Delo, Silk Highway’s Ross Ulbricht, and Binance’s Changpeng Zhao.
Earlier this yr, the notorious Bitfinex hacker, Ilya Lichtenstein, was launched from jail beneath the First Step Act, signed by Trump. This enabled his early launch after serving lower than two months of a five-year sentence.
Amid the pardon spree, SBF started his quest to safe an early launch. Recall that he was arrested and jailed because the mastermind behind the cataclysmic collapse of the once-giant crypto derivatives alternate FTX in late 2022. Since March 2024, he has been serving a 25-year jail sentence.
In February 2025, SBF’s mother and father sought a pardon for his or her son, based on reviews circulated on the time. The notorious FTX founder has additionally expressed a want to be launched early, when he repeatedly praised Trump’s pardon for the ex-Honduran president, Juan Orlando Hernández (JOH), who was sentenced because of cocaine importation.
Nevertheless, Trump has now shattered any hope of clemency for the FTX founder. This suggests that Bankman-Fried will proceed serving jail time and can solely discover getting a pardon when one other president guidelines the nation.
Extra Pardon Refusals
Other than SBF, Trump additionally made it clear that he wouldn’t be issuing a presidential pardon to a few people. These embrace Sean “Diddy” Combs, an American rapper who was imprisoned for crimes associated to prostitution, and Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s president, who was lately arrested following narco-terrorism crimes.
One other particular person Trump stated he wouldn’t grant clemency to is the previous New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez. He’s at present serving an 11-year sentence because of a bribery cost and appearing as a international agent.
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