By Michael Scott
On Friday, Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX’s founder, was taken to a detention facility in New York following the revocation of his bail. His accommodations will differ from his parent’s home on the Standford University campus in Palo Alto, where he dwelled while on house arrest.
Ghislaine Maxwell and Martin Shkreli were previously held in the Brooklyn Jail.
The fallen crypto genius was remanded to the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn following Judge Lewis Ka Kaplan’s establishing that he might have played a role in witness tampering. Already, Sam Bankman-Fried faces numerous criminal charges, for instance, fraud, concerning FTX’s collapse last November.
Brooklyn Prison Welcomes Excrypto Magnate Bankman-Fried
The Federal Bureau of Prison’s inmate locator reveals that currently, Bankman-Fried is among the nearly 1600 imprisoned persons at the facility that has previously housed other high-profile convicts. At one instance, this inmate list comprised Ghislaine Maxwell, an imprisoned sex trafficker and ex-British socialite.
Coincidentally, she was represented by Mark S. Cohen, Bankman Fried’s current lawyer. This was before being found guilty of offenses and crimes related to Jeffrey Epstein, a late financier and imprisoned sex offender.
In November 2021, Ghislaine Maxwell complained about the MDC Brooklyn’s conditions. Via the U.K.’s daily mail, she talked about rats residing in her cell and ‘terrifying’ guards that made showering uncomfortable.
Martin Shkreli, a ‘Pharma Bro,’ was also locked up at MDC Brooklyn before his conviction in 2018 linked to a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme. In 2017, he revealed to The Tab that it was necessary to evade the prison by remembering when he nearly engaged in a fight while waiting in line to use a computer.
Bankman-Fried Staring at Lengthy Sentence
Martin’s Twitter post on Saturday claimed that MDC Brooklyn is bad for Sam and suggested that it might take 15 to 30 years for the ex-crypto magnate to see home again. Via an earlier recording on the UpOnly podcast, he had comforted Do Kwon, Terraform Labs’ cofounder, who has since been apprehended. In this case, he claimed that prison is not so bad.
In 2019, Leticia James, New York’s Attorney General, referred to MDC Brooklyn’s living conditions as cruel and deplorable. Additionally, an amicus brief in a lawsuit against the Bureau of Prisons concerning a power interruption that exposed convicts to extreme cold was filed.
However, there is a possibility of Bankman-Fried being transferred to another facility before his October trials. Reuters reveals that according to federal prosecutors, he may be held at a Putnam County Correctional Facility before his bail.
Putnam County Correctional Facility is categorized as a medium-level security facility situated nearly 1.5 hours north of the courthouse that the former FTX’s cofounder left in handcuffs on Friday. Though MDC Brooklyn’s conditions are quite harsh, the Bahamas Fox Hill prison’s conditions are also cruel. Sam Bankman-Fried was initially held in the latter prior to his repatriation to the United States following his December arrest.
Bankman Faces Mounting Challenges Following Booking in Brooklyn Prison
The United States State Department released a report in 2021 showing that most cells in the prison did not have toilets and mattresses. A combination of maggots, insects, and rats had infested most of the facility’s cells.
On the contrary, Bankman-Friend’s parents’ residence, where he went following his arraignment, felt like heaven. The San Francisco Standard reported that the home has expansive windows, a grand piano, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, and a swimming pool.
During his spell on the West Coast, appeals were made on behalf of Bankman Fried to permit access to streaming services, for instance, Netflix and Spotify, and also use news websites such as Decrypt and CoinDesk.
Towards the conclusion of his stay, the ex-crypto mogul’s attorneys appealed for an expansion of his guest list to include his household help and close friends. This indicated Bankman-Fried’s loneliness and the need for a maid.
The BOP’s website indicates that prisoners can include up to ten associates or friends on their visiting list. However, it remains uncertain if Bankman Fried would be subject to stricter limits. Additionally, the commissary list of the MDC Brooklyn fails to indicate in-house cleaning services.