(Bloomberg) -- The parents of FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried are exploring ways to secure a pardon for the onetime crypto billionaire from President Donald Trump, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Stanford Law School Professors Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried had meetings in recent weeks with lawyers and other figures considered to be in Trump’s orbit about clemency for their 32-year-old son, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for fraud, the person said. It’s unclear if outreach has been made to the White House.
Bankman and Fried declined to comment. A lawyer for Bankman-Fried, who’s also filed a legal appeal of his 2023 conviction on charges tied to the collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The White House declined to comment.
The president’s swift use of his pardon power, including for Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, has encouraged a rush among white-collar defendants eager to put their case before Trump.
In seeking Trump’s mercy, Bankman-Fried — who went from industry darling to villain overnight — would be appealing to a man who went from crypto skeptic to booster. The crypto industry and the libertarian movement strongly advocated for a pardon for Ulbricht, who was serving a life sentence for drug-trafficking and money-laundering that occurred on his site.
Bankman-Fried doesn’t currently have the same groundswell of support but has previously made the case that his sentence was “draconian” since FTX customers have largely recovered most of the money they initially lost. Ryan Salame, a former FTX executive who was sentenced to more than seven years in prison, has also said he’s seeking a pardon.
Jeffrey Grant, who runs a legal and advisory firm in New York for white-collar defendants, said he’s received perhaps 100 inquiries about pardons.
“We have been hearing from people in prison, from people recently sentenced who haven’t reported to the Bureau of Prisons yet, from people who have been indicted,” Grant said. “They are looking for somebody who knows somebody.”
Federal prisoners may apply for clemency through a Justice Department office dedicated to such requests, but Trump has previously made decisions based on less formal appeals.
Grant said he disapproves of putting those with influence in line ahead of people who’ve been languishing in prison. “I appreciate people want to do it and need to do it, but as an organization we don’t get involved,” he said.
Sam Mangel, a white-collar prison consultant, said he was working on several clemency requests. Mangel, who’s previously worked for Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, said he’d been given some guidance from contacts within the president’s circle.
“I was told not to bring any sex crimes, true crimes of violence or illegal immigration cases,” he said.
The president’s early use of his pardon power contrasts with his first term, when most of his clemency orders came toward the end of his time in office. That’s typical of most presidents, including Joe Biden, who issued a flurry of pardons in his final days, including for his son and other family members and certain high-profile political opponents of Trump.
Trump pardoned a number of Republican political allies like Bannon. Bankman-Fried was once a Democratic mega-donor, but the president has also come to the aid of Democrats who say they’ve been victims of political prosecutions. Trump has been mulling intervening in the bribery case against New York Mayor Eric Adams, who’s suggested he was targeted because he criticized Biden’s immigration policies.
Bankman-Fried and Trump may share a more specific sense of injustice. US District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who oversaw the FTX founder’s trial and sentenced him to decades behind bars, also presided over the defamation and sexual assault lawsuits brought against Trump by New York writer E. Jean Carroll. Both Bankman-Fried and Trump have accused Kaplan of being unfair to them.
Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard Law School professor who helped several people receive clemency during Trump’s first term, said he’s recently received calls seeking similar assistance.
“I said call me back in a month,” said Dershowitz. “Right now Trump is busy doing other things.”
--With assistance from Stephanie Lai.
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