Sam Bankman-Fried formally files for pardon—but White House reiterates that FTX cofounder’s odds are slim

After donating to the Democrats before his conviction, the onetime crypto billionaire has recently made overtures to the GOP.

Convicted crypto fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried formally submitted a pardon request with the Department of Justice, but the odds of President Donald Trump granting him clemency remain slight, according to a White House spokesperson. The status of Bankman-Fried’s request is currently listed as “pending,” per the Department of Justice’s website on Monday. 

The FTX cofounder’s petition follows reports that his parents were engaging with individuals connected to Trump’s inner circle to curry the president’s favor—a notable pivot for the onetime crypto billionaire, who was briefly one of the largest donors to Democrats. Amid the charm offensive, Bankman-Fried even conducted an unsanctioned interview with conservative TV host Tucker Carlson from prison in March 2025.

A White House spokesperson pointed Fortune to remarks made by Trump in January, in which the President said he had no plans to pardon Bankman-Fried, among other high-profile figures, including ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and former New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez. 

The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

An uphill battle

Bankman-Fried’s clemency bid comes amid a wave of pardons that Trump has doled out to not only high-profile crypto figures—among them Binance founder Changpeng Zhao and Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht—but also other white-collar criminals. 

In 2023, Bankman-Fried was convicted of fraud and later sentenced to 25 years in prison for orchestrating one of the largest financial crimes in history, secretly diverting billions in customer funds from the crypto exchange FTX to his crypto hedge fund, Alameda Research.

Even now, the FTX cofounder maintains that he wasn’t guilty, pushing his case on social media and in the courts. In April, a federal judge denied Bankman-Fried’s motion for a new trial, leaving the pardon request as one of the crypto convict’s last remaining legal recourses. If granted, it would clear the civil and professional penalties that typically follow a federal felony conviction, though it would not wipe his criminal record clean.

Following his own conviction for stealing money from his clients, Michael Avenatti, who represented adult film star Stormy Daniels in a lawsuit against Trump, shared a cell with Bankman-Fried at the Terminal Island federal prison in California. Avenatti isn’t sympathetic to Bankman-Fried’s appeals.

“Over the course of my 55 years on the planet, I have had the good fortune of meeting people from all walks of life… but I can say without doubt that Sam Bankman-Fried is one of the most arrogant, least self-aware individuals I have met in my life,” he told Fortune.

A lawyer for Bankman-Fried didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com