United States senators from both political parties are urging President Donald Trump to reject FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s pleas for a pardon after the cryptocurrency fraudster applied for clemency last week.
Bipartisan Resolution Against Clemency
Senators Cynthia Lummis, a Republican from Wyoming, and Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat, will introduce legislation on Wednesday, urging Trump to deny the request from Bankman-Fried, who is now serving a 25-year prison sentence. They plan to seek unanimous consent from all senators to quickly pass the resolution, which is not binding. Both senators, who sit on the Banking Committee, have led efforts to create a market structure for cryptocurrency.
Strong Words from Lawmakers
“Sam Bankman-Fried wants the country to forget that he ran one of the largest financial frauds in American history while victims are still waiting to be made whole,” Lummis said in a statement. “He had his day in court and now it’s time for him to take accountability instead of looking for a way around it.”
Gallego said in a statement that Bankman-Fried “is a criminal. He took advantage of millions of Americans and stole their savings. Perhaps worst of all, he has shown no remorse for his crimes and has instead tried to laughably claim he is a victim of ‘lawfare.’ What a joke. Keep him locked up.”
Bankman-Fried’s Pardon Campaign
Bankman-Fried has been using social media and interviews with conservative news organizations to lobby for a pardon from Trump, who has pardoned or commuted the sentences of dozens of white-collar defendants in his second term. Trump told the New York Times in January that he had no plans to pardon Bankman-Fried, whose allies have accused the Justice Department of unfairly singling him out for prosecution.
In their resolution, Gallego and Lummis write that they “reject any characterization of the FTX prosecution as lawfare and affirm the integrity of the federal criminal justice process that produced Bankman-Fried’s conviction.”
Background of the Case
Bankman-Fried was convicted of orchestrating a fraud at FTX, a crypto exchange, that cost lenders, customers and investors US$10 billion. He lost an appeal to overturn his conviction last week. Much of the money is being paid back under bankruptcy proceedings.
“It’s one of the very few cases where the platform was over-collateralized, where customers were more than made whole,” Bankman-Fried told Fox Business earlier this month. “And yet there was, you know, not just a criminal investigation, but a prosecution.”
U.S. Circuit Judge Barrington Parker, writing for the appeals court panel, said FTX customers were defrauded when Bankman-Fried transferred their funds, “regardless of how strongly he believed he might later return the money.”
Trump’s Pardon Process
Trump has often sidestepped the traditional pardon application process during his second term, creating a supercharged pardon economy in which some lawyers quote as much as US$1 million to put cases together and bring them to the White House, Bloomberg News has previously reported. When previously asked about the potential for a pardon, the White House has declined to comment, but referred to Trump’s comments in the Times interview.
Bankman-Fried’s petition follows the Justice Department process for leniency used by thousands of people every year, and his notice doesn’t specify who filed his petition. A representative for Bankman-Fried did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
