Sam Bankman-Fried Back In NYC Prison Following Transfer To Oklahoma

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Julia Smith

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Julia is an experienced editor with a passion for covering a wide variety of beats. She loves all things politics and regularly covers regulatory updates on emerging technology here for Crypto News.

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June 4, 2024

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Now disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) is back at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, New York to work on his appeal following nearly a week spent at a transfer facility in Oklahoma, inmate records reveal.

FTX Founder SBF Back In NYC Prison, Working On Appeal

It appears the now-convicted crypto fraudster was sent to the Federal Transfer Facility in Oklahoma City after Judge Lewis A. Kaplan recommended he be moved to a prison in his home state of California in order to be closer to family.

However, Bankman-Fried’s lawyers pushed back against the idea, with the FTX founder reportedly wanting to stay in New York as his legal team works on his appeal.

🟣 Former FTX CEO Sent to Oklahoma Prison

📍 Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) is no longer incarcerated in New York or California, but in Oklahoma, according to prison records.

🔄 According to the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of the Inspector General, the facility in Oklahoma… pic.twitter.com/ROVHQtfCLj

— Crypto Mission (@CryptoMissionPL) May 27, 2024

An April letter to the Bureau of Prisons from Kaplan requests that Bankman-Fried “remain confined in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York until his appeal has been fully briefed to facilitate access to appellate counsel.”

The move seemingly shows the federal government’s willingness to cooperate with Bankman-Fried’s wishes in the leadup to his expected appeal for masterminding FTX’s large-scale digital asset fraud.

SBF’s History With MDC

Bankman-Fried has been held at MDC since Kaplan revoked his bail in August of last year for witness tampering after he released pages of his ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison’s diary to the New York Times in the summer of 2023.

Ellison, who served as former CEO of FTX’s sister company Alameda Research and had taken a cooperation agreement with U.S. prosecutors in light of Bankman-Fried’s charges, was considered the government’s star witness.

“By selectively sharing certain private documents with the New York Times, the defendant is attempting to discredit a witness, cast Ellison in a poor light, and advance his defense through the press and outside the constraints of the courtroom and rules of evidence: that
Ellison was a jilted lover who perpetrated these crimes alone,” U.S. prosecutors said in a letter to Kaplan at the time.

Former FTX Execs Expected To Be Sentenced Later This Year

The former “king of crypto” was convicted on all counts in a whirlwind fraud trial last fall and sentenced to 25 years in federal prison.

In addition to his lengthy sentence, Bankman-Fried has been ordered to pay $11 billion for his role in orchestrating the massive crypto fraud scheme that saw FTX investors drained of a total of $8 billion.

Several of Bankman-Fried’s former associates, including Ellison, are expected to be sentenced on criminal charges stemming from their time at the doomed crypto exchange sometime later this year.