Sam Bankman-Fried's parents seek Trump pardon for their son: report

Quick Take

  • Sam Bankman-Fried’s parents are aiming to get a presidential pardon for their son, but it’s not certain whether they’ve reached out to the White House yet, reports Bloomberg. 
  • Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried’s move to free Sam follows other attempts to pardon incarcerated high-profile crypto figures, such as Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht.  

The parents of Sam Bankman-Fried are looking to get their son a pardon from President Donald Trump, but it's not certain whether they've reached out to the White House yet, reports Bloomberg, citing a person familiar with the matter. 

Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried's move to free Sam follows other attempts to pardon incarcerated high-profile crypto figures. After his loved ones spent years seeking his freedom, Ross Ulbricht, founder and operator of the darknet marketplace Silk Road, walked free after 11 years in prison after Trump pardoned him on Jan. 21.

However, Sam Bankman-Fried likely won't have as much support as Ulbricht. Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of the now-defunct crypto exchange FTX, was sentenced to 25 years in prison after a jury ruled he defrauded billions from investors in what was called "one of the biggest financial frauds in U.S. history," The Block previously reported. 

Bankman-Fried was also one of the largest donors to the Biden campaign in 2020, donating $5.2 million to defeat Donald Trump at the time. 

Bankman-Fried's odds of receiving a presidential pardon within Trump's first 100 days don't look too good on Polymarket, either. Ulbricht amassed 95% odds of a pardon on the decentralized marketplace leading up to his pardon—thanks to Elon Musk posting, "Ross will be freed too," on the social media platform X hours before. Bankman-Fried's odds of a pardon are 6% as of publication, up from 4% on Jan. 22. 


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About Author

MK Manoylov has been a reporter for The Block since 2020 — joining just before bitcoin surpassed $20,000 for the first time. Since then, MK has written nearly 1,000 articles for the publication, covering any and all crypto news but with a penchant toward NFT, metaverse, web3 gaming, funding, crime, hack and crypto ecosystem stories. MK holds a graduate degree from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) and has also covered health topics for WebMD and Insider. You can follow MK on X @MManoylov and on LinkedIn.

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