SBF moved from NYC jail to Oklahoma prison to start serving 25-year sentence

Sam Bankman-Fried, the former FTX boss convicted of fraud, has been moved out of a federal jail in New York City and is now sitting in a federal transfer facility in Oklahoma City.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons updated his status early Thursday. He had been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn since August 2023 while awaiting permanent placement. This latest transfer means the Bureau has officially started the process of placing SBF in a long-term prison to serve his 25-year sentence.

Until Wednesday, SBF was locked up on the fourth floor of the Brooklyn jail, a section used for high-profile inmates. That’s the same area where people like Sean “Diddy” Combs and Luigi Mangione have been housed.

The Oklahoma facility is used for inmates being moved between federal prisons across the country. It’s not yet known where Sam will end up, but his transfer out of New York signals a new chapter in his prison time.

SBF used fake lawyer call to pull off Tucker Carlson interview

Before he was moved, Sam managed to cause chaos from inside the jail. In early March, he recorded a video interview with Tucker Carlson, a close Trump ally, without approval from prison officials. The interview appeared online shortly after it happened.

Prison policy normally requires pre-approval for any media interaction, but SBF got around it by passing the interview off as a video call with his lawyer, according to Larry Levine, a prison consultant and ex-inmate. “He probably called it a legal visit. They allowed him to use the system for an unmonitored video visit,” Larry told Fortune.

That move led to immediate consequences. The New York Times reported that jail officials had no idea the Carlson interview was happening and didn’t authorize it. The Wall Street Journal said Sam was punished with one day in solitary confinement right after the interview aired. Jail officials are now reviewing the stunt, and Sam could face further penalties from the Bureau of Prisons.

This wasn’t a one-off media appearance. In February, Sam gave an interview to the New York Sun. He’s also been posting regularly on X, formerly Twitter.

His online activity, combined with the Carlson interview, appears to be part of a campaign for a presidential pardon from Donald Trump, who returned to the White House in 2025. That campaign is being pushed by SBF’s parents and family friends, according to Fortune.

Prison officials may hit SBF with more penalties for breaking rules

Federal prisons started offering video calls during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when in-person visits were shut down. Those video systems were meant for legal meetings, not press appearances.

Kyle Sandler, another prison consultant who left federal prison a year ago, said the video systems are still in use.

“Most inmates can now have in-person legal visits,” Kyle said. “But they still do Zoom meetings, especially for someone like [Bankman-Fried], who’s probably got a ton of legal stuff going on.”

Despite the fake legal-call trick, the Bureau is expected to take disciplinary action, which Larry explained how it works like this:

“They’ll put a violation code on it, then they will place him under investigation, and then they will issue him a sanction for his violation.”

Federal prison rules list several possible violations, from minor offenses like “unauthorized phone use” to serious ones like “killing.” One of those violations is “unauthorized contact with the public,” which covers SBF’s actions.

Punishments vary. The Bureau can take away phone access, visitation rights, commissary use, and recreation time. In some cases, they may even add more time to the sentence. So far, the Bureau hasn’t said publicly whether Sam is officially under investigation. Mark Botnick, who used to represent SBF, said he didn’t know the Carlson interview was happening and stopped working with him after it aired.

The Bureau often places inmates being investigated into “special housing units,” which is the Bureau’s term for solitary confinement. There were around 2,700 federal inmates in SHUs as of Monday. That’s likely why Sam was moved out of the general population after the Carlson interview aired.

Sam Mangel, another federal prison consultant, told Fortune that SBF’s living conditions in Brooklyn were harsh. “You’re in a very, very confined space,” he said. Larry was more blunt: “This isn’t a f–king camp.”

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