US President Donald Trump has issued five pardons for figures in the crypto and blockchain industries, and may have received requests from Changpeng Zhao and Sam Bankman-Fried.
Anatoly Legkodymov, a Russian national and former CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Bitzlato, reportedly requested a federal pardon from US President Donald Trump after a 2023 guilty plea and serving 18 months in prison.
According to a Friday report from the Russian state media outlet TASS, Legkodymov’s legal team officially asked Trump for a presidential pardon after he pleaded guilty to operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. Legkodymov was indicted in January 2023, pleaded guilty in December, and was sentenced to time served in July 2024 after being in custody for about 18 months.
“Anatoly […] became a target in a political campaign against the crypto market and talented Russian programmers,” said Ivan Melnikov, vice president of the Russian branch of the International Committee for Human Rights, according to TASS. “His decision to ask for a pardon is based on the hope that the US will return to a more balanced and fair approach to digital finance.”
According to his indictment, Legkodymov was part of an operation that facilitated the transmission of illicit funds through his role at Bitzlato. US authorities alleged that hundreds of millions of dollars flowed from Bitzlato to the dark web Hydra Marketplace, and the exchange received about $15 million connected to ransomware attacks.
Related: Binance founder CZ Zhao asked Trump to pardon money laundering conviction
French authorities were reportedly attempting to extradite Legkodymov to face similar charges after his time in the US. It’s unclear if Trump has received the pardon request or whether he will act on it.
Cointelegraph reached out to the White House for comment but had not received a response at the time of publication.
Pardons for crypto industry figures who pleaded guilty or were convicted
Since taking office in January, Trump has issued at least 58 presidential pardons. Among them were Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who had been facing two life sentences in federal prison, and four former executives of cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX: Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, Gregory Dwyer and Samuel Reed.
Former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao said in May that he had applied for a pardon from Trump. Zhao pleaded guilty to one felony charge in November 2023 as part of a deal between US authorities and Binance. He served four months in prison.
Reports have suggested that former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was also attempting to secure a federal pardon from Trump by speaking on conservative news outlets and distancing himself from the Democratic Party. Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2024 and was housed at the Federal Correctional Institution in Terminal Island as of Friday.
Magazine: Trump’s crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider trading questions
