Since Ross Ulbricht was pardoned, it seems everyone and their brother is seeking one. Namely, I've seen a few times that Sam Bankman-Fried's parents are pining for a pardon for their son. I can respect that they want to support their son, but talk about a mindset of privilege. Despite all the Effective Altruism hot air about helping the "less fortunate," asking for a pardon sure reeks of entitlement. He stole an estimated $8 billion, yet his sentence was plenty short at only 25 years. If seen all through way to the end, Bankman-Fried would be in his mid 50s when released. The judge seemed to want to afford Bankman-Fried some hope...a chance at a second chance at life at that time. In a way, one could look at it as a career move...collect a few billion dollars, then do your 25 year career. I think few people will accumulate that much in their 25 year careers of actual work.
No doubt Bankman-Fried's parents are using the Ulbrict case as their hope. Ulbricht is a bitcoin rock star, but his situation was different. Whether you see Ulbricht as fighting the good fight of freedom or as a common criminal hiding and profiting off the dark web drug trade (read his wild story: part 1 and part 2), I think most bitcoiners see injustice in the sentence he received. <i>The sentence Ulbricht received was egregious</i>...two life terms plus 40 years...to the point of it being cartoonish. It was clearly a case of grandstanding, a gonna-make-an-example-of-this-guy situation. He served 11 years time and that is long enough. I'm happy for him to be out and starting life anew.
The Bankman-Fried situation is not the same. The free Sam movement, which I doubt even exists, seems to try to piggyback off the free Ross movement. I don't think Sam will get much pity from the bitcoin or "crypto" community. Polymarket has his pardon chances at only 3% right now. Makes sense...he stole from all of us.
To my mind, the question is, "Why would a pardon be appropriate?" A Coindesk article explains that an argument for his pardon is that most FTX customers have recouped their losses. Two things: (1) have they? All of them? and (2) Is stealing a car okay if you return it later on after you're caught? Another argument is that his sentence was too harsh, though it was only a quarter of what could have been laid down. The silliest argument was that Sam was the "victim" of a market downturn. That makes him the only victim I've ever heard of who came away with $8 billion.
The best case for the free Sam movement would be the simple plea: "He meant good, he screwed up, but he didn't mean any harm." To me, that's a long stretch. He funneled millions into fun things to do and fun places to shack up. And, oh, Google Gemini sates that he gave a $16.4 million dollar pad in the Bahamas to his parents, which they still seem own. And, worse case for them, they're forced to sell and then collect the profits.
Even for anyone who did not use FTX, Bankman-Fried stole from them too. He stole from everyone by chopping the bitcoin and crypto progression right across at the knees. For two and a half years, bitcoin has been trying to claw back from Operation Chokepoint 2.0 and the grandstanding of the Sen. Elizabeth Warren's and Gary Gensler's of the world. His actions threw gas on the war-on-crypto fire and gave a second life and mini-career to Warren and Gensler.
Had Bankman-Fried not stolen funds and ruined FTX, the entire bitcoin and cryptocurrency space would be two or three years farther down the road already. Since Chokepoint 2.0, Warren, and Gensler and their minions seem to be a yawn and eyeroll at this point, a pothole in the road. But think where we might be today had Bankman-Fried never been. We would likely be much further along and our portfolio's would be likely be greater as well. He stole from us all.
25 years for a few billion? He's lucky he got off as he did. The Bankman-Frieds ought to humble themselves and not expect a reward for poor behavior, ought to be thankful for the shortened sentence their son got, and ought to keep his name out of the news so that people will begin to forget. Allow the wounds to heal. No pardon.