Trump rules out forgiving FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried

Source: PortaldoBitcoin Original Title: Trump rules out pardoning FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried Original Link: President Donald Trump ruled out on Thursday a pardon for FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), apparently drawing a line between his pro-cryptocurrency agenda and the sector’s most serious fraud case.

Trump was responding to questions from a New York Times reporter, who also inquired about pardon requests for various prominent figures, including Sean “Diddy” Combs.

A jury convicted Bankman-Fried in November 2023 on multiple counts of fraud and conspiracy related to the embezzlement of billions of dollars in FTX customer funds. He was sentenced in March 2024 to 25 years in prison and has since appealed both the conviction and the sentence.

Reports indicate that Bankman-Fried’s parents began exploring ways to secure his pardon about nine months later, in January of last year, through various meetings with lawyers and other individuals considered influential with the president.

In the same month, Trump granted a pardon to Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the darknet marketplace Silk Road, who has been serving a life sentence since 2015.

Trump exercised his presidential powers to grant clemency to other notable figures in the cryptocurrency sector on several occasions in 2025, including the co-founders of a derivatives exchange, Arthur Hayes, and the founder of an exchange, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao.

Asked about Zhao’s pardon, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president “exercised his constitutional authority,” stating that Zhao “was prosecuted by the Biden administration in its war against cryptocurrencies.”

Trump also told The New York Times in an interview on Thursday that he sees no problem with expanding his family’s business interests while in office, including in the cryptocurrency sector, arguing that previous efforts to limit their activities did not earn him “any credit” for it.

The president stated that his administration’s support for cryptocurrencies is motivated by political and strategic considerations, saying that “he received many votes” for supporting the sector and framing it as a contest with China for global leadership, while dismissing concerns that easing regulations benefiting crypto companies could present conflicts of interest.

“I received many votes because I supported cryptocurrencies and ended up liking them,” Trump said in the interview. “China wanted them, and one of us was going to conquer them.”