Sam Bankman-Fried asked Trump for clemency

Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has asked President Trump for clemency, according to online records.

A jury convicted Mr. Bankman-Fried of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering in 2023 after federal prosecutors accused him of stealing billions of dollars from customers of the bankrupt FTX. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

The Office of the Pardon Attorney, a department of the Justice Department, listed Mr. Bankman-Fried’s request for a “post-sentence pardon” as “pending.” The application was submitted this year. No further details were available.

The official request is the latest attempt by Mr. Bankman-Fried in a long-running effort to seek clemency from Mr. Trump.

Supporters of Mr. Bankman-Fried and his parents campaigned to persuade the president, including working with a lawyer with presidential ties and reaching out to other well-connected people in Washington. Mr. Bankman-Fried’s father has publicly praised Mr. Trump’s policies, and Mr. Bankman-Fried participated in a prison interview with Tucker Carlson, then a Trump ally, last year.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Justice said that anyone can apply for a pardon and that the final decision on those applications is made by the president. The White House pointed to remarks by Mr. Trump earlier this year in which he said he had no intention of pardoning Mr. Bankman-Fried. This application was previously reported by Bloomberg.

Mr. Bankman-Fried’s parents and one of his lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Once a top Democratic donor, Mr. Bankman-Fried became the public face of the cryptocurrency industry after founding FTX in 2019. He presented himself as a responsible businessman in an industry struggling to achieve mainstream respectability.

But the founder was arrested in 2022 after his company collapsed and its accounts were raided. The government accused Mr. Bankman-Fried of stealing money from FTX customers and spending it on political contributions, investments and real estate.

The 34-year-old man appealed against the sentence. In a 2024 filing, his lawyer criticized decisions made by the judge overseeing Mr. Bankman-Fried’s case, which she said stacked the deck against his defense.