FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Should Not Get Presidential Pardon, Says US Senate

Lawmakers in the US Senate have unanimously opposed any presidential pardon to FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). The infamous founder of crypto exchange FTX has previously applied for a pardon to the Trump administration. However, the Trump administration has denied any intention of granting it.

US Senate: No Clemency for FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried

On July 15, the U.S. Senate adopted Senate Resolution 772 by unanimous consent, expressing opposition to any presidential pardon, commutation or other form of federal clemency for Sam Bankman-Fried.

A Senate procedure that allows legislation to pass without a formal vote has been approved via a common consent. The resolution was introduced by Senators Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) and Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.).

Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis is one of Congress’s leading advocates for the cryptocurrency industry. She’s been actively working for the passing of the Clarity Act to bring federal crypto regulations to the market.

Lummis said that SBF had already received due process, while Gallego called for him to “Keep him locked up.”

Bankman-Fried is currently serving a prison sentence and is not expected to be eligible for release until approximately 2044. A federal jury convicted him in November 2023 on seven criminal counts related to the collapse of FTX. Federal prosecutors described the case as one of the largest financial frauds in U.S. history after alleging that more than $8 billion in customer funds had been misappropriated.

No Plans to Pardon FTX founder SBF

Bankman-Fried’s clemency application remains pending before the Office of the Pardon Attorney. The Senate resolution is nonbinding and does not limit the president’s constitutional authority to grant pardons or commutations. This is despite the fact that President Trump has previously granted clemency to other high-profile figures in crypto, such as Ross Ulbricht and Changpeng Zhao.

Prosecutors said Bankman-Fried diverted billions of dollars in FTX customer deposits to his affiliated trading firm, Alameda Research. He later used these funds for trading activities, political donations, venture investments, real estate purchases, etc.

FTX collapsed in November 2022 after a CoinDesk report revealed weaknesses in Alameda Research’s balance sheet. Binance later announced plans to liquidate its FTT holdings, triggering a liquidity crisis that culminated in FTX filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried Still Has to Forfeit $11 Billion

At one point in time, Sam Bankman-Fried was one of the richest crypto founders in the industry. Following the collapse of crypto exchange FTX, the personal wealth of SBF tanked to $0, all the way from his 2022 peak net worth of $25.6 billion.

Along with sentencing SBF to prison, US District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered him to forfeit $11 billion to help compensate victims of the FTX collapse. Separately, the FTX bankruptcy estate has spent the past several years liquidating assets to repay affected customers

Other former executives at FTX also pleaded guilty following the exchange’s collapse. Some have even cooperated with federal prosecutors and testified against SBF during the criminal trial.

SBF’s girlfriend and Alameda Research’s former CEO, Caroline Ellison, was sentenced to two years in prison. Similarly, Ryan Salame, who served as co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison.