Elon Musk Boldly Predicts Biden Will Pardon Sam Bankman-Fried, Ignoring Public Doubts

Recent speculations on X regarding the possibility of Joe Biden granting Sam Bankman-Fried an early pardon has ignited a heated discussion online.

When the debate first erupted, it seemed that netizens were also quite skeptical that Joe Biden might grant a pardon for Sam Bankman-Fried, with only 10% of the people on Polymarket voting that Joe Biden would do so, and 90% of the people on the platform voting that they don't think this would happen.

And yesterday, things got even more heated after the world's richest man reacted to this online trend.

Elon Musk's confidence that a pardon will be granted for Bankman-Fried

Elon Musk broke his silence on the subject yesterday with a X post that writes

"I would be shocked if this doesn't happen."

But despite his speculations, Polymarket users remain unconvinced about the likelihood of a pardon.

According to the votes on the platform, it seems that the person who the netizens think is most likely to get the pardon from Joe Biden is Joe's brother, Jim Biden, followed by Anthony Fauci in second place.

The data seems to suggest that the internet thinks that the likelihood of Biden granting Sam Bankman-a pardon is highly improbable.

There are also rumours that Biden would be hesitant to grant Bankman-Fried a pardon because of the backlash that he might get if he does so.

But despite all the obvious signs, it seems that Elon Musk is very confident that the government could overlook Bankman-Fried's wrongdoings to offer him a pardon.

Musk's confidence roots from Bankman-Fried's past alliance with the democratic party. During his time as the CEO of FTX, Bankman-Fried has made massive donations to the Biden administration. In fact, Sam Bankman-Fried was the second largest donor to the democratic party.

The U.S president has the constitutional power to grant pardons for federal offenses. They include those related to drug offenses, financial crimes, tax evasion, and other violations of federal law.

Past US presidents, including Barack Obama and Donald Trump, pardoned a total of 2,164 individuals before leaving the White House during their last tenure.

And since Bankman-Fried faced conviction for orchestrating a fraud involving the misappropriation of customer funds and other crimes under U.S federal law, he would be eligible for a pardon.

The Unique case of Sam Bankman-Fried

But Bankman's case is a very unique one; in fact, the FTX case was even named as one of the largest financial frauds in history.

The former FTX boss was indicted in December 2022 for defrauding FTX and Alameda Research investors of around $8 billion. He faced charges including wire fraud, securities fraud, commodities fraud, money laundering, and campaign finance violations.

Bankman-Fried was caught and sentenced to 25 years in prison in March 2024, marking a dramatic fall for the former crypto mogul who once held the spotlight as a promising figure in the industry. His conviction sent shockwaves across the crypto sector exposing vulnerabilities in oversight and trust within the ecosystem.

Bankman's co-conspirators, Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research and Ryan Salame both received prison sentences as well. But interestingly, FTX executives Gary Wang and Nishad Singh both avoided prison time.