Shortened sentencing for two of the fallen crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried’s closest associates — Ryan Salame and Caroline Ellison — throw into sharp relief the uncertain fate of the FTX founder, who could be angling for a pardon. 

That possibility has been floated by the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, who is also a close adviser to President-elect Trump. Mr. Musk ventures that he would be “shocked” if Bankman-Fried is not pardoned by President Biden. In a followup comment, the Tesla founder claimed that “this administration is selling pardons and his will fetch a high price.” 

Mr. Musk offers no evidence for that shocking suggestion, and it is unclear whether he intended it in a literal sense. The pardon power, which covers all “offenses against the United States,” is among the least fettered of all presidential powers and is entitled to “absolute” immunity for being subsumed under what the Supreme Court calls the “conclusive and preclusive” authority of the president. Mr. Biden has come under scrutiny for a pardon issued to his son, Hunter. 

Mr. Musk appears to be alluding to the tens of millions of dollars that Bankman-Fried showered on politicians and causes when his crypto empire was so vast that some reckoned he could become the world’s first trillionaire. Prosecutors accused him of siphoning off customer funds to make more than $100 million in donations before the 2022 midterm elections. He was the second most munificent donor to Mr. Biden in the 2020 race, behind only Mayor Bloomberg. 

Salame, an FTX executive, pleaded guilty to fraud charges in September 2023. In May he was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison. The Federal Bureau of Prisons, though, now lists his release date as March 1, 2031, more than a year earlier than his initial release date of April 2032. That alteration was first reported by Business Insider.

Ellison, who was once Bankman-Fried’s girlfriend and the leader of an investment fund, Alameda Research, that was at the center of the wipeout that led to the filing for bankruptcy and handing up of criminal charges, pleaded guilty to seven counts of fraud and conspiracy. 

Ellison emerged as a cooperating witness for the government and testified that Bankman-Fried was “the one who set up the systems that allowed Alameda to take the money, and he was the one who directed us to take customer money to repay our loans.” She added that the “whole time that we were dating, he was also my boss at work, which created some awkward situations.”

That testimony secured her a two-year prison sentence, far shorter than the 25 years without the possibility of parole that Bankman-Fried received from Judge Lewis Kaplan of the Southern District of New York. Now, the Federal Bureau of Prisons discloses that Ellison, who is incarcerated at Danbury, has been assigned a release date listed as July 20, 2026, three months earlier than her initial one.

As part of the First Step Act signed into law by Trump, federal inmates are eligible to reduce their sentences by up to 54 days for each year served if they exhibit good conduct. Sentences can be further reduced for participation in prison programs. A search for Bankman-Fried’s expected release date, though, simply yields the result “Release Date: UNKNOWN.” Bankman-Fried has appealed his sentence, and requests a new trial with a new judge.

Bankman-Fried is incarcerated at the Metropolitan Detention Center at Brooklyn. His fellow inmates there include the rapper Diddy, whose real name is Sean Combs, accused of sex trafficking; and Luigi Mangione, the alleged murderer of the chief executive of UnitedHealthCare.