Donald Trump’s team implies no clemency for FTX’s disgraced founder Samuel Bankman-Fried, who is now likely to serve the full 25-year sentence. This was cleared up during Donnie’s recent interview with the New York Times.
Trump Responds To Convicted Celebrities Requesting Pardons
During this interview, Donald Trump was asked about the potential pardons of SBF, Sean ‘P. Diddy’ Combs & the freshly-captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. For Mr. Maduro Donald promised a full-fledged trial in New York for narco-terrorism & cocaine trafficking.
Sponsored
For Puffy, a pardon in the 5-year long jail sentence for organising a prostitution ring (violations of the Mann Act) isn’t on the table, despite the United States President calling the Hip Hop mogul by his original Puff Daddy nickname from the 90’s.
Trump went on, even admitting the two got along pretty well before politics stormed in, resulting in bad blood between the two entrepreneurs. The President even went on to flex Sean Combs’ hand-written love letter asking to bury the hatchet.
For crypto industry figures, Donald has been way more lenient, but not this time. Donald Trump has recently pardoned Binance’s co-founder Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao, alluding that the Chinese-Canadian crypto mogul was wrongfully convicted in a series of personal attacks.
FTX Boss Cooked? No Second Chance From Donald Trump
For Samuel Bankman-Fried, that’s just not the case. While Binance’s platform kept a level of integrity with their customers amidst the darkest times, Sam Bankman’s crew hosted colorful parties in Bahamas, directly embezzling billions of FTX’s customer deposits.
SBF’s team admitted the accountants had completely lost track of FTX’s financial operations. To add, SBF’s then-girlfriend & sister company Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison spilled the beans about losing the grip on hired staff, to the level where job positions aren’t even registered.
So, while Binance got slapped with a $4 billion fine for not meeting the vague requirements of anti-money laundering in crypto, FTX’s boss & his friends had completely deceived everyone around them. While lobbying efforts from SBF’s family continue, Donald Trump’s tone implies there’s no space for mercy in Sam’s case.
Explore DailyCoin’s hottest crypto scoops today:
TRU Token Collapses 100% After Truebit Protocol Exploit
ZEC Bounces 13% After Dev Team Exodus Turmoil
People Also Ask:
Yes – in his Jan 8, 2026 NYT interview, Trump said he has “no intention” or “no plans” to pardon Sam Bankman-Fried.
Trump’s pro-crypto pardons (Ulbricht, CZ, etc.) stop at massive fraud cases like FTX that burned billions in customer funds. SBF’s heavy Democratic donations also didn’t help.
25 years (sentenced March 2024); appealing conviction/sentence. Likely serves most of it (~2044 release with good conduct) without clemency.
Appeals ongoing (possible Supreme Court); future presidents could pardon, but Trump’s stance makes it politically tough now.
