The former CEO of the failed crypto exchange FTX is on the move. Sam Bankman-Fried is now in a federal transfer center in Oklahoma City, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The facility is often used for inmates moved across the country. The one-time crypto mogul has asked to be in a prison in California near where his parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, live.
A lawyer for Bankman-Fried didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bankman-Fried was previously on the fourth floor of Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center in a section reserved for high-profile inmates like Sean “Diddy” Combs and Luigi Mangione. He had been in the facility since August 2023, when a judge revoked his bail after he allegedly tampered with a government witness. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison in March 2024 for defrauding FTX customers and investors.
Bankman-Fried’s move across the country follows a recent media blitz in which he spoke with a reporter from the New York Sun, had someone from his inner circle post his musings from prison to his X account, and conducted a interview with Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host who now has his own online show. None of these activities were authorized by prison officials and, in the case of the Carlson interview, he misused a Zoom platform set up for inmates to confer with their lawyers.
The latter stunt landed Bankman-Fried one day in solitary confinement, but that’s likely only the beginning of an investigation from the Bureau of Prisons, which would ultimately result in “sanctions,” or punishments, according to three federal prison consultants who spoke with Fortune. These range from the loss of phone privileges to more severe penalties like increased time in prison.
Bankman-Fried’s media blitz comes as the former FTX CEO is apparently lobbying, with the help of his parents and friends, for a pardon from President Donald Trump. The former FTX CEO wouldn’t be the first white-collar criminal the White House has set free. Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the dark web marketplace Silk Road, was granted a pardon in January. And, on Thursday, Trump pardoned Trevor Milton, the founder of the bankrupt trucking startup Nikola, who was serving prison time for securities fraud.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
