Sam Bankman-Fried relocated from Brooklyn prison
Sam Bankman-Fried, the FTX cryptocurrency exchange founder sentenced to 25 years for fraud and conspiracy, was moved from a Brooklyn detention center to a federal correctional facility in California, against his preference for New York. The Bureau of Prisons did not comment, but Bankman-Fried anticipated relocation to Mendota, California, known for its medium-security prison and minimum-security satellite camp.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for fraud and conspiracy, was transferred out of a Brooklyn detention center on Wednesday and is likely on his way to a federal correctional facility in California.
The move to the West Coast goes against Bankman-Fried’s wishes of staying in New York while preparing for his appeal, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The Bureau of Prisons declined to comment on Bankman-Fried’s transfer, but the 32-year-old told those close to him that he expected to be moved to a facility in Mendota, California.
Mendota is home to both a medium-security prison and an adjacent minimum-security satellite camp. It’s not clear which Bankman-Fried will go to.
Bankman-Fried has been locked up in the New York facility since last summer.
The 32-year-old former mogul was sentenced in March, four months after a New York jury found him guilty of two counts of fraud and five counts of conspiracy that led to the seismic collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange and affiliated hedge fund.
Bankman-Fried stole billions in customer funds to live an extravagant lifestyle that included a sprawling penthouse in the Bahamas, where he ran his business. He also used customer money to buy himself “power and influence” on Capitol Hill and lied to cover his tracks.
“My useful life is probably over,” Bankman-Fried told Judge Lewis Kaplan before his sentencing. “It’s been over for a while now.”
Kaplan called his crimes “very serious” and chastised him for “evasive, hairsplitting” testimony during the six-week trial in November.
“Never seen a performance quite like that,” the judge added.
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In April, Bankman-Fried’s attorneys asked that he be allowed to stay in Brooklyn while they worked on his appeal.
In the long term, they had asked he be moved to California so he could be close to his parents, who have taught at Stanford Law School since the 1980s.
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