The pro-crypto U.S. President Donald Trump may grant clemency to former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, according to his parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried. They have reached out to members of Trump's inner circle in hopes of securing their son’s release, as reported by Bloomberg.
After his inauguration on January 20, Trump fulfilled his campaign promises by pardoning over 1,500 participants of the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, as well as Ross Ulbricht, the creator of the Silk Road darknet marketplace who had been incarcerated for a decade. The Silk Road allowed users to buy various illegal goods using bitcoin.
However, will Trump show the same leniency towards Sam Bankman-Fried, who had many political connections at the height of his success? Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison in March 2023 for causing the collapse of his crypto exchange, FTX, which was once the second-largest platform globally. In November 2023, he was convicted on seven counts, including deceiving investors and misappropriating client funds for personal gain and to cover losses at his trading firm, Alameda Research. Following the collapse of FTX in November 2022, more than $8.7 billion in cryptocurrencies belonging to clients and companies went missing. He is currently appealing his prison sentence and is held at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn.
