Convicted crypto kingpin Sam Bankman-Fried reportedly used mackerel fish snacks to pay for a haircut while locked up — the popular currency for those detained on the notorious high-security Brooklyn penitentiary.
Bankman-Fried — who faces greater than 100 years in prison when he’s sentenced in March following last month’s conviction for fraud and money laundering in reference to the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX — has been held on the Metropolitan Detention Center since August when a federal judge revoked his bail.
The Brooklyn jail has long been accused of inhumane conditions exacerbated by persistent staffing shortages, power outages and maggots in inmates’ food.
It also bans cigarettes, the standard item bartered behind bars, forcing the jailbirds to trade goods just like the smelly fish snacks, in accordance with The Wall Street Journal.
Bankman-Fried, a professed vegan, had stunned observers in court initially of the trial when he ditched his scraggy hair-do in favor of a neater look.
The 31-year-old appears to be making the most effective of his bad situation. He has been giving cryptocurrency tricks to jail guards while being fed vegetarian meals, in accordance with sources cited by the Journal.
“Sam’s doing the most effective he can under the circumstances,” Bankman-Fried’s spokesman, Mark Botnick, told The Journal.
The FTX founder, who in the course of the height of his success famously lived in a $30 million penthouse within the Bahamas, shares a jail cell with the previous president of Honduras as well as a Mexican law enforcement official suspected of helping the Sinaloa drug cartel smuggle 50 tons of cocaine into america.
Like other inmates, Bankman-Fried is permitted a non-attorney visitor once per week. He also has access to a specialized laptop pc that limits him to legal material related to his case.
Bill Baroni, an attorney who served time in federal prison for his role within the “Bridgegate” scandal, told The Journal that Bankman-Fried’s life will get easier once he’s sentenced.
On the Brooklyn facility, he has little freedom of movement. His meals are delivered to his cell as he doesn’t have the choice of dining with other inmates in a cafeteria-like setting.
“When he’s sentenced, his life will get well,” Baroni told The Journal.
“He’ll be out of the ability with most violent people.”