Sam Bankman-Fried’s parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried are fighting to pull their son out of the legal quicksand that’s swallowed him, according to a Jan. 30 report from Bloomberg.
They’re reportedly meeting with lawyers and insiders close to President Donald Trump, hoping to secure a presidential pardon that could cut short SBF’s 25-year prison sentence for fraud. The meetings have been happening in the past two weeks, though the report said it’s unclear if they’ve officially reached the White House.
Trump’s pardon history gives white-collar criminals new hope
Trump’s recent clemency moves—like the pardon of Silk Road’s Ross Ulbricht—have given white-collar criminals everywhere renewed hope. And SBF, a man who went from crypto hero to fraud villain overnight, wants in on that action.
Now Ross’s supporters (crypto enthusiasts and libertarians alike) lobbied hard for his release, but SBF doesn’t have that level of fanfare backing him.
Still, he’s pushing the idea that his 25-year sentence is excessive. Why? Because FTX customers have mostly recovered the money they lost when the crypto exchange collapsed. Ryan Salame, another FTX executive who received a seven-year sentence, is also trying to secure a pardon.
Jeffrey Grant, who runs a legal advisory firm for white-collar defendants, says he’s drowning in pardon-related inquiries. “We’ve had around 100 inquiries—people in prison, people who’ve been sentenced but haven’t reported yet, people under indictment,” Grant reportedly said. “They all want someone who knows someone.”
Federal prisoners usually file clemency requests through a dedicated Justice Department office, but Trump doesn’t exactly follow protocol. His clemency decisions have often come from informal, backdoor appeals.
Still, Grant said, “It’s frustrating to see people with influence jumping ahead of those who’ve been sitting in prison for years. But I understand why people do it.”
According to him, contacts within Trump’s circle gave him some clear instructions: “No sex crimes, no violent offenses, and no illegal immigration cases.”
SBF and Trump share a common enemy
One interesting twist is that SBF and Trump share a mutual hatred of US District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, the man who sentenced SBF to 25 years. Kaplan also presided over Trump’s defamation and sexual assault lawsuits involving New York writer E. Jean Carroll in 2023.
Both SBF and Trump have accused the judge of being biased against them. That could work in SBF’s favor. Trump has already shown he’s willing to pardon political opponents if he feels their prosecutions were unfair.
New York Mayor Eric Adams, for instance, claims he was targeted for criticizing Biden’s immigration policies and so Trump is considering stepping in to help him. If he’s willing to cross party lines for Adams, why not for SBF, a former Democratic mega-donor?
While SBF’s legal team works on a pardon strategy, they’re also dealing with the fallout from his betrayal by Gary Wang, who was his closest friend and the co-founder of FTX. When the feds started closing in, Gary flipped.
He cooperated with prosecutors, creating software that helped them trace exactly how SBF stole from FTX customers. The software also helped them crack many other cases, so the Judge decided to pardon Gary.
Gay knew FTX’s inner workings better than anyone. He was the “quiet genius” behind the scenes, coding and building while SBF played the charismatic frontman.
Employees reportedly even compared Gary to a pair of robotic arms that SBF controlled. But when Gary walked into the courtroom on that fateful day in December 2022, everything came undone.
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Source: https://www.cryptopolitan.com/sbfs-parents-want-to-ask-president-trump-to-pardon-their-convicted-son/