President Donald Trump told The New York Times he will not pardon former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, who is serving 25 years for fraud and conspiracy, despite granting clemency to other crypto figures including Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao and Ross Ulbricht.
SBF’s Parents Lobbied Trump’s Orbit Without Success
Bankman-Fried’s parents, former Stanford Law School professors Barbara Fried and Joseph Bankman, reportedly met with lawyers and others in Trump’s orbit attempting to secure a pardon.
The lobbying campaign failed to sway Trump, who is a major political backer of the Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) and digital assets entrepreneur.
SBF conducted a Republican-friendly media rehabilitation tour in recent months and repeatedly praised Trump’s pardon of former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández for cocaine importation.
However, the strategy didn’t work.
Bankman-Fried donated $5.2 million to the Biden campaign in 2020, potentially creating political complications for a Trump pardon.
He’s currently appealing his conviction and is housed at Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, reportedly in the same dormitory as rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs, who also won’t receive clemency.
Trump Pardoned Three Other Major Crypto Figures
Trump’s refusal to pardon SBF stands in sharp contrast to his clemency for other crypto industry figures.
In January 2025, Trump freed Ross Ulbricht, Silk Road’s founder who served over a decade for facilitating $1 billion in illegal drug transactions.
In March, Trump pardoned BitMEX co-founders Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, Samuel Reed, and Gregory Dwyer, who violated anti-money laundering laws.
The most controversial pardon came in October when Trump freed Binance founder CZ, who had pleaded guilty to enabling money laundering and paid $50 million in fines.
Critics including Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-mass.) alleged corruption, noting Binance invested $2 billion in Trump’s World Liberty Financial project (CRYPTO: WLFI).
That investment potentially generates $48-52 million annually for Trump’s family.
Binance also spent $800,000 lobbying for clemency, though CZ denied any quid pro quo arrangement.
Why Trump Drew The Line At SBF
The distinction between SBF and the pardoned crypto figures appears to center on the nature of their crimes and political optics.
Ulbricht’s Silk Road case became a libertarian cause célèbre over harsh sentencing. The BitMEX founders faced regulatory violations rather than customer fraud.
CZ’s Binance case involved regulatory failures but not direct customer theft. SBF’s FTX collapse, by contrast, resulted in $8 billion in customer losses through fraud and misappropriation of funds.
Trump defended his pro-crypto stance in the Times interview, saying it helped him win votes and that he has “come to like crypto.”
The comment suggests Trump views the crypto industry as politically valuable, but won’t extend that support to figures convicted of stealing customer money.
The SBF rejection also avoids the appearance of pardoning someone who donated millions to Democrats, which could create backlash among Trump’s base despite SBF’s recent Republican outreach.
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