U.S. Senate unanimously opposes clemency for FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried

U.S. Senate unanimously opposes clemency for FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried

Policy

U.S. Senate unanimously opposes clemency for FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried

The nonbinding resolution passed without objection after Bankman-Fried asked for clemency, months after Trump pardoned other major crypto figures, including Changpeng Zhao and Ross Ulbricht.

By

Shaurya Malwa

Updated

Jul 16, 2026, 7:23 a.m.

Published

Jul 16, 2026, 6:00 a.m.

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Summary

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The Senate unanimously approved a resolution declaring that FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried should under no circumstances receive a presidential pardon or commutation.

The bipartisan measure, led by Senators Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and Ruben Gallego of Arizona, underscores lawmakers’ view of Bankman-Fried’s role in what prosecutors called one of the largest financial frauds in U.S. history.

Bankman-Fried, convicted in 2023 on seven counts related to FTX’s collapse and the loss of more than $8 billion in customer funds, is not eligible for release until around 2044, and former President Donald Trump has said he has no plans to pardon him.

The Senate

agreed Wednesday

that Sam Bankman-Fried should never receive clemency, passing a resolution that states the FTX founder should "under no circumstances" get a pardon or commutation.

It passed by unanimous consent, a procedure that clears as a measure if not a single senator objects to it.

Senators Cynthia Lummis, a Wyoming Republican, and Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat, serve as the Senate Banking Committee's digital assets subcommittee's top Republican and Democrat, respectively.

Lummis is the crypto industry's most committed advocate in Congress and has spent years writing the legislation the industry wants. She has led the effort to keep one of its most infamous figures behind bars.

"He had his day in court," Lummis said when the pair

introduced the measure

on June 17. Gallego's statement ended with four words: "Keep him locked up."

Bankman-Fried is not eligible for release until around 2044. A jury convicted him in November 2023 on seven counts tied to the collapse of FTX, which prosecutors called one of the largest financial frauds in U.S. history, with American customers losing more than $8 billion.

President Donald Trump

said in January

he had no plans to pardon Bankman-Fried. He has cleared Binance founder Changpeng Zhao and Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht, along with other white-collar offenders.

Bankman-Fried ran two companies at once. FTX was a crypto exchange, which holds customer money the way a broker does and is not supposed to touch it. Alameda Research was a trading firm he also owned. He moved billions of dollars in FTX customer deposits to Alameda, which spent the money on trades, venture investments, political donations, and Bahamian real estate, while FTX's software exempted Alameda from the rules that would have forced it to cover its losses like any other trader.

The facade was blown open after CoinDesk

obtained Alameda's balance sheet

in November 2022 and found that most of what the firm counted as assets was FTT – a token FTX had created itself and could issue at will.

The collateral propping up Alameda was, in effect, something its sister company had invented. Further cracks emerged after the prominent exchange Binance said, days later, it would sell its FTT holdings, leading to a rapid collapse in FTT prices.

Customers rushed to pull their deposits, and FTX could not return the money because it was no longer there. The exchange filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, 2022, just over a week after the story ran.

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