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The nonbinding resolution cleared the Senate without opposition after Sam Bankman-Fried sought clemency, coming months after former President Donald Trump granted pardons to prominent crypto figures such as Changpeng Zhao and Ross Ulbricht.
On Wednesday, lawmakers unanimously signaled that Bankman-Fried should never be granted leniency, approving a resolution stating he must not receive a pardon or sentence reduction under any circumstances.
The measure advanced through unanimous consent, a procedure that allows legislation to pass as long as no senator objects.
Senators Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and Ruben Gallego of Arizona — the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee’s digital assets subcommittee — led the initiative.
Lummis, widely regarded as one of the crypto sector’s strongest allies in Congress, has spent years pushing industry-friendly legislation while also taking a firm stance against one of its most controversial figures.
“He had his day in court,” Lummis said when introducing the resolution on June 17. Gallego delivered an even sharper message, concluding: “Keep him locked up.”
Bankman-Fried is not expected to be eligible for release until around 2044. A jury convicted him in November 2023 on seven charges tied to FTX’s collapse — a case prosecutors described as one of the largest financial frauds in U.S. history, with losses exceeding $8 billion for American customers.
Earlier this year, Trump said he had no plans to pardon Bankman-Fried, despite previously granting clemency to Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht, and other white-collar offenders.
Bankman-Fried operated both FTX and Alameda Research. FTX functioned as a crypto exchange meant to safeguard customer funds, while Alameda was a trading firm he also controlled. He diverted billions in customer deposits from FTX to Alameda, which used the funds for trading, venture deals, political donations, and Bahamian real estate. At the same time, Alameda was granted special privileges within FTX’s system, allowing it to bypass safeguards that would have forced other traders to cover losses.
The operation began to unravel in November 2022 when CoinDesk obtained Alameda’s balance sheet, revealing that much of its reported assets consisted of FTT — a token created by FTX itself.
In effect, Alameda’s financial backing relied heavily on an asset issued by its sister company. Concerns escalated further when Binance announced plans to sell its FTT holdings, triggering a sharp drop in the token’s price.
As confidence collapsed, customers rushed to withdraw funds, but FTX could not meet the demand because the money had already been spent. The exchange filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, 2022, just over a week after the report surfaced.
