Convicted FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is seeking a presidential pardon from inside a federal prison cell, telling FOX Business correspondent Susan Li in an exclusive phone interview that he would “absolutely” welcome one.
Interview response
When asked directly whether he wanted a pardon from the White House, Bankman-Fried responded:
“Absolutely. It would be obviously, you know, ultimately up to the president, not up to me.”
He declined to say whether his family is currently lobbying the Trump administration on his behalf.
Defending the FTX collapse
Despite being sentenced to 25 years in prison in March 2024 after being found guilty on two counts of wire fraud and five counts of conspiracy, Bankman-Fried continued to argue his prosecution was unjust.
The court found that FTX customers lost $8 billion, equity investors lost $1.7 billion, and lenders to his Alameda Research hedge fund lost $1.3 billion following the collapse of FTX in November 2022.
Bankman-Fried pushed back on those findings, pointing to bankruptcy payouts that have since risen due to the recovery in cryptocurrency markets.
He told Li:
“Customers have been repaid now 170% or so on their deposits. It’s one of the very few cases where the platform was over-collateralized, where customers were more than made whole.”
Regrets and praise for Musk
Bankman-Fried also said he regrets missing the artificial intelligence boom from behind bars, and praised Elon Musk’s ability to build companies.
He said he believes SpaceX has “extremely large potential” and that “very few people have been able to grow companies like Elon has.”
His comments come as bitcoin’s price has recovered sharply since the FTX collapse, which has contributed to the higher-than-expected bankruptcy repayments he cited in his defense.
