Convicted crypto kingpin Sam Bankman-Fried reportedly used mackerel fish snacks to pay for a haircut whereas locked up — the popular foreign money for these detained on the infamous high-security Brooklyn detention heart.
Bankman-Fried — who faces greater than 100 years in jail when he’s sentenced in March following final month’s conviction for fraud and cash laundering in reference to the collapse of cryptocurrency change FTX — has been held on the Metropolitan Detention Heart since August when a federal decide revoked his bail.
The Brooklyn jail has lengthy been accused of inhumane situations exacerbated by persistent staffing shortages, energy outages and maggots in inmates’ meals.
It additionally bans cigarettes, the normal merchandise bartered behind bars, forcing the jailbirds to commerce items just like the smelly fish snacks, in accordance with The Wall Avenue Journal.
Bankman-Fried, a professed vegan, had surprised observers in courtroom at the beginning of the trial when he ditched his scraggy hair-do in favor of a neater look.
The 31-year-old seems to be making the very best of his unhealthy state of affairs. He has been giving cryptocurrency tricks to jail guards whereas being fed vegetarian meals, in accordance with sources cited by the Journal.
“Sam’s doing the very best he can underneath the circumstances,” Bankman-Fried’s spokesman, Mark Botnick, advised The Journal.
The FTX founder, who through the top of his success famously lived in a $30 million penthouse within the Bahamas, shares a jail cell with the previous president of Honduras in addition to a Mexican regulation enforcement official suspected of serving to the Sinaloa drug cartel smuggle 50 tons of cocaine into the US.
Like different inmates, Bankman-Fried is permitted a non-attorney customer as soon as every week. He additionally has entry to a specialised laptop computer laptop that limits him to authorized materials associated to his case.
Invoice Baroni, an legal professional who served time in federal jail for his function within the “Bridgegate” scandal, advised The Journal that Bankman-Fried’s life will get simpler as soon as he’s sentenced.
On the Brooklyn facility, he has little freedom of motion. His meals are delivered to his cell as he doesn’t have the choice of eating with different inmates in a cafeteria-like setting.
“When he’s sentenced, his life will get higher,” Baroni advised The Journal.
“He’ll be out of the power with most violent individuals.”