Sam Bankman-Fried says he would “completely” welcome a pardon from US President Donald Trump.
Trump, for his half, has already mentioned no.
Cellmate Speaks Up
Michael Avenatti, who shared a jail unit with the previous FTX chief, went additional than Trump’s January dismissal. In a collection of posts on X, Avenatti mentioned SBF by no means as soon as admitted any wrongdoing throughout their time collectively — not privately, not in passing, not ever.
“Not as soon as did he admit he’d finished something improper,” Avenatti wrote, including that redemption begins with accepting accountability. With out that, he argued, a pardon request carries no actual weight.
Avenatti isn’t any impartial observer. He’s himself a convicted felon, presently incarcerated for extortion and fraud. His criticism of SBF’s character comes from somebody along with his personal appreciable authorized baggage.
Sam Bankman-Fried and I have been jail bunkmates and I do know him nicely. So I learn this with extra context than most.
Sam and I argued greater than as soon as about the identical factor: his refusal to just accept ANY accountability for what he did. Not as soon as did he admit he’d finished something improper — even… https://t.co/7FHJelX1gx
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) June 8, 2026
Sam Bankman-Fried. Picture: Purpose Journal
Nonetheless, Avenatti didn’t write off Bankman-Fried totally. He described the previous crypto government as a expertise visionary with real mental presents. The issue, in his telling, was not SBF’s intelligence — it was his judgment about his personal limits.
FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried formally utilized for a presidential pardon https://t.co/GB3lcL9A0p
— Bloomberg (@enterprise) June 8, 2026
The Management Query
Avenatti drew a pointed comparability to Google. When Larry Web page and Sergey Brin constructed their firm, they ultimately introduced in Eric Schmidt, an skilled government, to assist run it. They acknowledged what they didn’t know. Bankman-Fried, Avenatti argued, by no means made that decision.
Had SBF employed “an precise grownup within the room” and listened to folks with actual operational expertise, Avenatti mentioned, FTX would possibly by no means have collapsed. He put a quantity on it: SBF might at present be value near $100 billion and nonetheless be a free man.
Complete crypto market cap at $2.14 trillion on the every day chart: TradingView
That argument sits awkwardly alongside the authorized report. SBF is presently serving a 25-year sentence for his position within the FTX collapse.
His conviction centered on the commingling of buyer funds — a discovering he continues to dispute. He has maintained that FTX prospects have been in the end repaid, a declare critics reject as a distortion of the complete image.
Trump’s Place On The Report
Trump has already weighed in on this publicly. In January, he advised The New York Instances he has no intention of granting SBF clemency.
Throughout his second time period, Trump has issued greater than 1,400 pardons and commutations — over 1,200 of them tied to the January 6 instances alone.
SBF has not appeared on any listing of individuals into account.
Featured picture from Aaron Schwartz/Sipa USA/Alamy, chart from TradingView
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