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- The US Senate unanimously passed a resolution stating that FTX founder Sam Bankman Fried should “under no circumstances” receive executive clemency, including a pardon or commutation.
- The bipartisan measure was led by Senators Cynthia Lummis (R-Wis.) and Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), the ranking members of the Banking Committee’s Digital Assets Subcommittee.
- The decision is symbolic and does not limit the president’s constitutional pardon power. Bankman-Fried, convicted in 2023, is not eligible for release until 2044.
The US Senate unanimously declared that Sam Bankman Fried should never receive clemency, bypassing A accuracy on Wednesday stipulated that the disgraced FTX founder should “under no circumstances” receive a pardon or a reduction in his 25-year sentence.
Measure, S. Res. 772, passed unanimously — a procedure that clears the resolution as long as no senator objects to it. Along with his position on Bankman-Fried, he reiterated the Senate’s commitment to “the rule of law and the integrity of the financial system of the United States.”
As a non-binding resolution, it carries no legal force and cannot limit the president’s constitutional power to grant pardons.
A rare bipartisan front
The measure was led by Senators Cynthia Lummis (R-Wis.) and Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), the top Republican and Democrat on the Digital Assets Subcommittee of the Senate Banking Committee, who Serve it On June 17th. Loomis, the cryptocurrency industry’s most prominent advocate in Congress, said at the time that Bankman-Fried had “had his day in court.” Gallego was more blunt, saying: “Keep him locked up.”
A spokesman for Loomis’ office said at the time: Decryption “It is clear that SBF has stepped up its clemency campaign and that Senator Lummis wants Fried to know that she and her colleagues believe he is right where he belongs.”
A narrow path to freedom
Voting ends as Bankman-Fried continues to search for a way out. he He lost his appeal When a federal court upheld his fraud conviction last month, while President Donald Trump He said in January He has no plans to pardon him.
Trump was willing to extend clemency to other crypto figures, including the Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” ZhaoBitMEX Founders Arthur Hayes, Ben DeLillo, and Samuel ReedAnd the creator of the Silk Road Ross UlbrichtAnd he pardoned them all.
How FTX broke up
Jury Convict Bankman Fried In November 2023 on seven charges related to 2022 FTX Crashwhich was once one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison, and prosecutors described it as one of the largest financial frauds in US history after American customers lost more than $8 billion.
With the courts, the White House, and now the entire Senate lined up against him, Bankman-Fried’s options have dwindled, making his scheduled release, somewhere around 2044, the most likely route out.
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