The parents of Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and former CEO of FTX in jail, are attempting to request pardon and clemency from President Donald Trump for their crypto fraudster son. However, it is still unclear if they have managed to establish direct contact with the White House.
Summary
Sam Bankman-Fried: the parents take action to request Trump’s presidential pardon
The parents of Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) are trying to get in touch with the Trump administration to request a presidential pardon for their son in prison.
According to what reported by Bloomberg, it seems that Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried are taking steps to discuss a potential clemency for SBF.
In fact, the founder and former CEO of FTX, Bankman-Fried, is serving his 25-year prison sentence starting from last March 2024. His sentence was handed down by a federal judge after the conviction for seven counts of fraud and conspiracy.
In addition to the charges, the sentence also considered SBF’s attitude during the trial for never having shown remorse for his terrible crimes committed. These remorses, however, came immediately after the discovery of how many years in prison he would have to serve, in April 2025.
In any case, the report emphasizes that it is not yet official that the two parents, both professors at Stanford Law School, have managed to establish direct contact with the White House.
Sam Bankman-Fried and Trump’s Clemency? The Case of Ross Ulbricht
Probably, the decision of Sam Bankman-Fried’s parents to ask for clemency for their son directly from the USA President, is related to what happened in the Ross Ulbricht case.
In fact, the creator of the darknet market Silk Road, in prison since 2013, received the pardon from Trump exactly one day after the start of his term. On January 22, 2025, Ulbricht was released from prison and is free.
Ulbricht had to serve a sentence of two life imprisonments plus 40 years in prison for allowing illicit trade through the platform he created. However, this sentence has become a symbol of excessive power to the point that the “Free Ross” movement has been supported by all those who believe in the principles of privacy, autonomy, and the freedom to innovate.
Silk Road was for many the first true significant use case of Bitcoin (BTC), demonstrating the revolutionary potential of decentralized and censorship-resistant money.
The situation of Bankman-Fried, however, is totally different. Bankman-Fried does not enjoy broad public support, even though he claims that his sentence is excessively severe.
Elon Musk and the financial connection between Bankman-Fried and Joe Biden
At the end of December 2024, when the United States was still under the administration of Joe Biden, Elon Musk claimed to have suspicions about the Bankman-Fried case.
In fact, the famous billionaire entrepreneur would have shared a post on X stating that he would not be surprised if Biden released SBF from prison before the end of his term.
In reality, of course, such a situation did not occur, but Musk’s words on the matter were also motivated by the financial connection between Biden and SBF.
In fact, SBF was one of the major financiers of Joe Biden’s election campaign, having donated 5.2 million dollars. Bankman-Fried is also said to have donated a total of 70 million dollars to the Democrats in less than 18 months.
