Sam Bankman-Fried has a new currency to trade in prison: rice
Left: AP Photo/Mary Altaffer Right: Godong/ Universal Images Group via Getty Images
- FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who was convicted on seven counts, gave an interview from prison to Puck.
- SBF told Puck he spends his days in a large dormitory room with 35 other men.
- He said he lives off beans and rice purchased from the commissary, and his rice is now prison currency.
Sam Bankman-Fried has a new currency to trade in prison at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
The disgraced FTX founder and cofounder of Alameda Research was convicted of wire fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy in November.
He was sentenced to 25 years in prison in March and gave his first in-person interview from MDC to Puck News' William D. Cohan.
In the interview, published on Thursday, Bankman-Fried discussed his conditions in the federal prison. He also said he did not do anything wrong and is planning to appeal his conviction.
Cohan was not permitted a pen, pad, recorder, phone, or watch during the interview, so his observations were subsequently written down.
The former CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange told Puck that he subsists off beans and bags of rice purchased from the commissary and that his rice "has become one of the currencies of the realm inside MDC."
Bankman-Fried, Cohan estimates, has lost 25 pounds and looks fitter, which may be in part because he says the vegan food he is served is inedible and his fellow inmates told him it smells like "shit."
The former crypto mogul, who is known by his initials SBF, told Puck he is in a section of the prison that mainly houses female prisoners but that his ward is a large room with bunk beds that holds 35 men. He said that maybe half of the men had been convicted of murder and became cooperating witnesses.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider about Bankman-Fried's prison quarters, nor did his attorneys.
He told Puck his days consist of sitting in the room with the other men while four televisions play different channels. He said he doesn't watch much TV but uses a tablet to play games or watch movies.
He told Puck that he has not been abused and does not "fear for his safety." And the only time he is pestered is at night "about those bags of rice, which they intend to use to barter," he said.
SBF was found guilty of stealing $8 billion from FTX customers. Following his conviction, US Attorney Damian Williams said SBF "perpetrated one of the biggest financial frauds in American history — a multibillion-dollar scheme designed to make him the King of Crypto." He was found guilty of commingling FTX customer money with that of Alameda Research, money that prosecutors said went to enriching executives.
FTX said this week that it plans to pay back customers.