Crypto convict and former billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried is speaking out on X for the first time since entering prison, providing his thoughts on the mass firings of government employees as he reportedly vies for a pardon from President Donald Trump.
“Firing people is one of the hardest things to do in the world. It sucks for everyone involved,” Bankman-Fried wrote in a thread on X on Monday.
It is unclear how Bankman-Fried, who is serving a 25-year sentence on fraud and conspiracy charges related to his defunct crypto exchange FTX, was able to post from prison—or if the posts were, in fact, authored by him. He is being held in a federal prison in Brooklyn where social media use is restricted. However, inmates can often access cell phones that are smuggled in. Bankman-Fried may also be disseminating his message through a spokesperson outside of prison.
Mark Botnick, a spokesperson for Bankman-Fried, declined to comment when contacted by Fortune.
In the thread, Bankman-Fried expressed sympathy for recently fired government employees but also said “there’s no point in keeping them around, doing nothing.” The crypto mogul went on to share what he had learned from firing workers at FTX—which employed around 300 people before it went bankrupt in 2022.
“I’d tell this to everyone we let go: that it was as much our fault for not having the right role for them, or the right person to manage them, or the right work environment for them,” he wrote. He emphasized that it is often not the employee’s fault that they are being fired but also said that “it is usually correct to let them go anyway.”
His comments come amid mass firings of government employees, a policy led by Trump and head of the Department of Government Efficiency Elon Musk to cut costs and save taxpayer money.
Potential pardon
The X posts are the first from Bankman-Fried since 2023 and follow a recent attempt to curry favor with Trump and Musk in an apparent effort to receive a pardon. In a New York Sun article last week, Bankman-Fried said he was “frustrated and disappointed” with the Democratic party under the Biden administration, despite having been a prolific Democratic donor in the past. He also expressed support for Musk’s gutting of government agencies, saying “some things actually do need more than a 10% cut.”
A pardon for Bankman-Fried is not as far-fetched as it may seem. One of Trump's first moves as president was to release Ross Ulbricht, the founder of dark web site Silk Road, whose users trafficked drugs and paid for them with cryptocurrencies. He was sentenced to life in prison for his involvement and served nearly 12 years before being pardoned in January. There has also been a push to pardon Roger Ver, an early Bitcoin investor accused of tax fraud.
It remains unclear whether a pardon for Bankman-Fried is even on the table, but Bloomberg reported in January that his parents have been discussing the idea with “with lawyers and other figures considered to be in Trump’s orbit.”
