Sam Bankman-Fried praises Trump pardon in move seen as bid for clemency

Sam Bankman-Fried has commended President Trump’s pardon of the former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez in what could be perceived as a bid to secure a presidential pardon for himself.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the now collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has publicly celebrated President Donald Trump’s decision to pardon former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez.

SBF and Hernandez were detained together at the Metropolitan Detention Center in New York before Hernandez was released from federal prison following his pardon on December 1, 2025.

What did Sam Bankman-Fried do now?

After being sentenced to 25 years behind bars for fraud, disgraced founder Sam Bankman-Fried and his family have been attempting to get him pardoned like other crypto figures.

Bankman-Fried shared on the social media platform X through an account managed by friends that he was glad Hernandez had been freed. He described Hernandez as one of the kindest and most dedicated people he had met. The former crypto mogul said the two became friends under the worst possible circumstances, and went further to call Hernandez’s arrest a frame job and a travesty.

Hernandez was convicted in March 2024 after a three-week jury trial in New York on charges of conspiring to import more than 400 tons of cocaine into the United States.

During his trial, the prosecution proved that Hernandez used heavily armed Honduran National Police officers to protect the cocaine loads through their transfer from Honduras toward the United States.

Hernandez’s brother, Juan Antonio Hernandez Alvarado, was convicted of drug trafficking in October 2019 and sentenced to life in prison. Several potential witnesses in the case were murdered before Hernandez’s arrest, including one killed just one week after his brother’s conviction.

A federal judge sentenced him to 45 years in prison in June 2024. U.S. prosecutors said Hernandez used his position as president of Honduras from 2014 to 2022 to help drug cartels smuggle massive amounts of cocaine while accepting millions of dollars in bribes.

President Trump announced on November 28 that he would grant a full and complete pardon to Hernandez. Trump stated that Hernandez had been treated harshly and unfairly by prosecutors. He had served less than one year of his 45-year sentence when Trump freed him.

The Justice Department stated Hernandez received payments from some of the largest drug trafficking organizations in Honduras and Mexico, including $1 million in bribes to protect Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman of the Sinaloa Cartel.

Why is Sam Bankman-Fried commenting on presidential pardons?

Bankman-Fried is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence after being convicted in November 2023 on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy related to the collapse of FTX. He stole billions of dollars from FTX customers and defrauded investors and lenders. The former billionaire was found guilty of using customer funds for personal expenses, political donations, real estate purchases, and venture capital investments.

Bankman-Fried and his parents, Stanford Law professors Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, have reportedly been appealing to Trump’s inner circle for a presidential pardon for their son.

For an incarcerated person, Bankman-Fried has also been active on social media, posting regularly through intermediaries, and claiming that FTX was solvent at the time of its collapse.

Bankman-Fried’s praise of Hernandez’s pardon is being viewed as an indirect appeal for his own clemency.

The former FTX CEO’s chances for a pardon appear complicated by several factors. He donated $5.2 million to the Biden campaign in 2020, making him one of the largest donors working to defeat Trump, unlike other crypto figures who have received pardons or clemency from Trump, like former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao and Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht.

Bankman-Fried’s case is currently before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, where his lawyers are attempting to get him a new trial.

Prediction markets show extremely low odds of Bankman-Fried receiving a pardon in 2025, with Polymarket traders believing the probability of a decision in his favor is just 2% and Kalshi traders guess 4% odds.

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