TLDR
- Federal prosecutors have until March 11 to file their response to Sam Bankman-Fried’s request for a retrial
- The disgraced FTX founder received a 25-year prison sentence in 2024 after being found guilty on seven felony fraud charges in 2023
- SBF has been sharing Trump-supportive content from prison via proxy accounts, seemingly angling for executive clemency
- Senators from both parties, including Cynthia Lummis (R) and Elizabeth Warren (D), have publicly rejected SBF’s endorsement of crypto legislation
- White House officials have confirmed multiple times that President Trump has no plans to pardon Bankman-Fried
The former chief executive of bankrupt cryptocurrency platform FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), continues battling for his freedom through multiple legal and political channels — though neither strategy appears to be working.
Judge Lewis Kaplan of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York established March 11 as the deadline for federal prosecutors to file their response to SBF’s motion requesting a new criminal trial, according to court documents released Wednesday.
The disgraced crypto entrepreneur SBF faced conviction on seven felony charges in 2023. By March 2024, he had received a 25-year federal prison sentence for orchestrating a massive fraud scheme that siphoned billions of dollars from FTX customer accounts through his hedge fund, Alameda Research.
His defense team has appealed both the guilty verdict and the sentence length. The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has yet to deliver a decision on that appeal as of Thursday.
The motion for a new trial, submitted to the court this month, argues that fresh witness testimony has emerged that could benefit his defense. This legal maneuver operates independently from the pending appellate case.
At the same time, SBF has maintained an active presence on social media platforms despite his incarceration. Using intermediaries to post on his behalf, he has shared multiple messages on X expressing support for President Donald Trump while condemning alleged “political bias” in the judicial proceedings against him.
He also publicly endorsed the Clarity Act, pending crypto regulatory legislation moving through Congress. In his posts, SBF framed the bill’s potential passage as beneficial to Trump’s agenda.
The strategy spectacularly misfired. Senator Cynthia Lummis, a Republican known for championing cryptocurrency policy, delivered a stinging rebuke on X. “Someone’s looking for a pardon and doesn’t realize the Clarity Act would have you locked up for much longer than 25 years,” she wrote.
Lummis made clear her bill bears no resemblance to legislation SBF reportedly attempted to shape in 2022. “We do not need — nor want — your support,” the senator emphasized.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, similarly dismissed SBF’s backing. She characterized SBF as “a fraudster who stole at least $8 billion from customers” and warned that his support for the Clarity Act should “set off alarm bells.”
Market sentiment around the Clarity Act’s prospects has cooled recently. Data from prediction platform Polymarket shows the legislation’s odds of enactment before year’s end have declined approximately 16% over the past seven days, currently standing at 69%.
Bankman-Fried’s prospects for receiving a presidential pardon look equally bleak. White House representatives have stated on numerous occasions that Trump has no intention of pardoning him, including comments to the New York Times in January and Fortune magazine on Tuesday.
While Trump has granted clemency to other cryptocurrency industry figures — notably former Binance chief Changpeng Zhao and Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht — SBF has not received similar consideration.
Caroline Ellison, who led Alameda Research and provided testimony against SBF during his trial, walked free in January after serving 440 days. Ryan Salame, who served as co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, received a sentence exceeding seven years and remains incarcerated.
At press time, SBF’s appeal remains undecided, while the March 11 deadline for the government’s response to his new trial motion remains in effect.
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