{"id":615183,"date":"2026-06-08T20:40:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T20:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=615183"},"modified":"2026-06-08T20:40:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T20:40:00","slug":"sam-bankman-fried-absolutely-wants-a-presidential-pardon-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=615183","title":{"rendered":"Sam Bankman-Fried ‘Absolutely’ Wants A Presidential Pardon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sam Bankman-Fried ‘Absolutely’ Wants A Presidential Pardon<\/span><\/p>\n

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From inside a federal prison cell, disgraced crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried is making a direct bid for a White House lifeline<\/strong>. In a phone interview with FOX Business<\/em>, the former FTX founder said he “absolutely” wants a presidential pardon from President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

“Absolutely. It would be obviously, you know, ultimately up to the president, not up to me,” he said.<\/p>\n

Bankman-Fried declined to confirm whether his family is currently lobbying the administration on his behalf, saying only, “I can’t speak for them.”<\/p>\n

In March 2024, Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison after being convicted on two counts of wire fraud and five counts of conspiracy<\/strong>. The court found that the November 2022 collapse of his crypto empire resulted in approximately $8 billion<\/strong> in losses for FTX customers, $1.7 billion<\/strong> for equity investors, and $1.3 billion<\/strong> for lenders to Alameda Research.<\/p>\n

Key Development Today:<\/strong> Bankman-Fried has formally submitted a presidential pardon application through the Department of Justice’s Office of the Pardon Attorney.<\/p>\n

Bankman-Fried Defends His Case<\/h2>\n

Despite his conviction, Bankman-Fried continued to argue that the prosecution was unjust, citing the recovery in cryptocurrency markets that has allowed the bankruptcy estate to repay customers more than they originally lost.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t steal user funds either. Customers have been repaid now 170% or so on their deposits.<\/strong> It’s one of the very few cases where the platform was over-collateralized, where customers were more than made whole. And yet there was, you know, not just a criminal investigation, but a prosecution. And, you know, dozens of years of sentence[s].<\/strong>” -SBF<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He added that it is “a great disservice” to customers that it has taken three years for them to be repaid nearly twice what they had on the platform.<\/p>\n

Regrets Missing the AI Boom, Praises Musk<\/h2>\n

When asked about his fear of missing out on major technological developments, SBF expressed frustration at being unable to participate from prison.<\/p>\n

“It’s a concern I have. You know, there’s a lot that I did try and position… I’d certainly much rather be, you know, able to help that out<\/strong> from the outside than in here where there’s very little I can do.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He then praised\u00a0Elon Musk<\/strong> and SpaceX, saying the company has “extremely large potential” and noting parallels with how few companies are positioned to play a major role in the space industry.<\/p>\n

Today’s interview is the latest in a months-long effort by Bankman-Fried to secure clemency. He has posted pro-Trump messages<\/a> via prison-approved proxies<\/strong> and his parents have previously explored clemency options with lawyers connected to the Trump orbit.<\/p>\n

For example, back in March…<\/p>\n

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The current spike only highlights how much oil prices have lowered under @realDonaldTrump<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udee2\ufe0f:
\nTrump (2017-2020): $58
\nBiden (2021-2024): $83
\nTrump (2025): $68<\/p>\n

Average price over the whole of 2022: $99
\nPrice yesterday: $100<\/p>\n

Calm down.<\/p>\n

\u2014 SBF (@SBF_FTX) March 14, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While President Trump has granted clemency to other crypto figures, including Binance’s Changpeng Zhao, he previously told The New York Times<\/em> he does not plan to pardon Bankman-Fried.<\/strong> Some members of Congress and voices in the crypto industry have urged him to deny the request.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nMon, 06\/08\/2026 – 16:40<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sam Bankman-Fried ‘Absolutely’ Wants A Presidential Pardon From inside a federal prison cell, disgraced crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried is making a direct bid for a White House lifeline. In a phone interview with FOX Business, the former FTX founder said he “absolutely” wants a presidential pardon from President Donald Trump. “Absolutely. It would be obviously,… Continue reading Sam Bankman-Fried ‘Absolutely’ Wants A Presidential Pardon<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":615175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-615183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economic-empowerment","category-national-security","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=615183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/615175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=615183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=615183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=615183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}