Former FTX CEO Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried has been returned to the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn by United States officials. He was briefly held at a transfer facility in Oklahoma before being transferred back to New York. Initially, it was speculated that Bankman-Fried would be transferred to a prison near his parents’ home in the San Francisco Bay Area, but the reasons for his return to New York are unclear.
Bankman-Fried’s lawyers had requested that he remain at MDC Brooklyn to assist in his appeal of his conviction and sentencing. Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over Bankman-Fried’s trial and sentencing, also recommended that he stay in the state. Bankman-Fried was convicted in November 2023 on seven felony counts related to the misuse of customer funds at FTX and Alameda Research. In March, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison. His legal team filed a notice to appeal in April, but no details of the appeal grounds have been revealed.
Bankman-Fried was one of the few individuals involved in the collapse of FTX and Alameda to plead not guilty and face a jury. Another former FTX executive, Ryan Salame, was sentenced to 90 months in prison by Judge Kaplan on May 28. Other executives involved in the collapse have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.
Salame has mentioned the possibility of publishing a memoir about his time at FTX and Alameda, while Bankman-Fried has been mostly silent on social media and in the media since his trial. Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, who was sentenced to four months in prison for violating money laundering laws, reported to the Federal Correctional Institution in Lompoc, California. Zhao has expressed his intention to write something during his incarceration, which is expected to end by October 2024. Alex Mashinsky, the former Celsius CEO, is set to face criminal charges after Bankman-Fried and Zhao, with his trial scheduled to begin in January 2025.