Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried praises Trump's pardon of ex-Honduran president as he seeks clemency

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried took to social media again on Tuesday to react to President Donald Trump's pardoning of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández,  saying, "few are more deserving than him."

That remark comes as Bankman-Fried himself is seeking a pardon from Trump after he was convicted in 2023 on multiple fraud and conspiracy charges for stealing billions of customers' funds from his now-bankrupt crypto exchange, FTX. He is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence and is in the process of trying to appeal the conviction. In his X bio, it says the posts are Bankman-Fried's words, but shared by a friend. 

"I'm so glad Juan Orlando is free—few are more deserving than him," Bankman-Fried said on Tuesday on X. Hernández was reportedly pardoned by Trump on Tuesday after he was convicted and sentenced last year to 45 years in prison for drug trafficking offenses. 

On Sunday, Bankman-Fried said he had met Hernández, calling him "one of the kindest and most dedicated people I've met," in a post on X.

Last month, Bankman-Fried's case went in front of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit as the former exec looked to get a new trial. The court likely won't issue an opinion on the possibility of a retrial until well into next year. 

Bankman-Fried's parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, have also been pushed for a pardon following other attempts to pardon high-profile crypto figures — the latest being former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao.

However, Bankman-Fried's pardon chances seem slim. He was one of the largest donors to the Biden campaign in 2020, donating $5.2 million to defeat Trump at the time.

In recent months, Bankman-Fried has become more active on social media, posting through a proxy to argue that FTX was solvent at the time of its collapse and that the estates are mismanaging or withholding funds — themes he repeats across several recent tweets.