Key Facts

• Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of FTX, was convicted on seven felony charges related to the misuse of customer funds and is currently serving a 25-year sentence.
• Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis and Democratic Senator Rubén Gallego have introduced a non-binding resolution warning against a presidential pardon for Bankman-Fried, citing concerns that it would "erase [his] conviction, weaken deterrence, and send a deeply damaging message".
• Bankman-Fried formally applied for a pardon from President Donald Trump after a federal appeals court upheld his conviction and sentence, leaving a presidential pardon or an appeal to the US Supreme Court as his only legal paths forward.
• The resolution highlights that Bankman-Fried's 25-year sentence reflects the "extraordinary scale and deliberateness of his crimes, his lack of remorse, and the catastrophic harm inflicted upon millions of victims".
• Bankman-Fried's conviction was related to the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX in 2022, which resulted in investor losses totaling billions of dollars, and he has since posted messages on social media aligning with Trump's political agenda.