🚨🚨🚨🚨Sam Bankman-Fried is back in New York prison to appeal The former FTX CEO spent about a week at the Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City, with speculation rife that authorities planned to send him to a California prison.
United States authorities have returned former CEO of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried, to the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn after a brief stint at a transfer facility in Oklahoma.
On June 4, Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate records showed that Bankman-Fried was being held at MDC Brooklyn after about a week at the Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City.
Many speculated that authorities intended to transfer the former FTX CEO to a prison in the San Francisco Bay Area, near his parents' California home. It is unclear what prompted the SBF's return to New York. His lawyers requested that the former FTX CEO remain at MDC Brooklyn to assist in the appeal of his conviction and sentence.
Judge Lewis Kaplan of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York – who oversaw the SBF's criminal trial and sentencing – also recommended that he remain in the state. In November 2023, a jury convicted Bankman-Fried of seven criminal counts related to the misuse of client funds at FTX and Alameda Research. In March, Judge Kaplan sentenced SBF to 25 years in prison. Bankman-Fried's legal team filed a notice of appeal on April 11. At the time of publication, no documents appeared in the court record suggesting why SBF intended to appeal.
Bankman-Fried was one of the only individuals linked to the collapse of FTX and Alameda to plead not guilty and face a jury. On May 28, Judge Kaplan sentenced Ryan Salame, former co-CEO of Bahamas-based FTX Digital Markets, to 90 months in prison.