The U.S. Senate has sent a clear message to Sam Bankman-Fried: stay in prison.

Eight days later, the senators passed a resolution to discourage any clemency for the disgraced FTX founder. Everyone voted unanimously for the motion. There was no objection by any senator and it passed by what is known as unanimous consent. This allows them to avoid a formal roll call vote if all members agree.

The Resolution is non-binding. This means it is not lawful to prevent a pardon. Nevertheless, it received significant unified support from both sides to oppose granting Bankman-Fried the early release.

Who Pushed the Resolution

These leaders were Senators Cynthia Lummis (WY) and Ruben Gallego (AZ). Both members are on the Senate Banking Committee. They also chair its subcommittee on digital assets, where Lummis is the No. 1 Republican and Gallego is the No. 1 Democrat.

Lummis said Bankman-Fried already had his chance in court. Gallego was even more assertive, noting that the FTX founder deserves to be in prison.

The Senate acted after Bankman-Fried asked for clemency. The pardon came months after President Trump pardoned other widely-known crypto players. Those contain Binance founder Changpeng Zhao and Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht. Back in January, Trump said he had no plans to pardon Bankman-Fried.

Why He Is in Prison

A jury found Bankman-Fried guilty in November of 2023 on seven counts of fraud. Prosecutors called it one of the biggest financial frauds in U.S. history. He is not to be released until about 2044.

This case is about over a case of $8Billion in missing customer money. FTX is a crypto exchange that stores customer funds. Bankman-Fried also owns a separate trading firm called Alameda Research. Prosecutors say FTX secretly moved customer deposits to Alameda. That money paid for betting on trades, start-up investments, political contributions and Bahamian real estate.

How FTX Fell Apart

Its collapse started in November 2022. CoinDesk obtained the company’s balance sheet and released a report that most of the company’s holdings were FTT tokens, also created by FTX. Binance then stated that it would sell FTT holdings. The token’s price dropped. There was a mad rush by customers to withdraw money. FTX went bankrupt on November 11th, 2022.

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