FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried moved to California medium-security prison known for violence

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the collapsed crypto exchange FTX, has been transferred to a medium-security federal facility in California. This move comes after he was convicted of one of the biggest financial scams in the US, receiving a 25-year jail term.

According to records from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons (BOP), FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) has been transferred to Victorville Medium II FCI, a medium-security federal prison in California. The facility is known for its high levels of violence and is referred to by inmates…

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Bankman-Fried is currently detained at Federal Correctional Institution Victorville Medium II, which is known to be a very risky penitentiary for violent convicts. The 32-year-old was moved to Victorville after spending over a year and a half in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. His transfer took place after a brief period of time in a federal transfer center in Oklahoma. This preceded a high-profile interview with journalist Tucker Carlson.

The disciplinary action was triggered by Bankman-Fried’s interview, in which he detailed daily life at the Brooklyn detention center. He was reportedly put in solitary confinement after giving an unauthorized interview to the media.

FCI Victorville has always been notorious for violence, especially in regard to prisoners attacking other prisoners and even the guards. In 2017, several guards were attacked and injured, and the prison warden was stabbed severely enough that they needed medical attention. 

Life at Victorville for FTX founder

The prison culture of Victorville is dominated by inmate “cars,” which are racially framed security sub-groups ruling the relations within the prison. Those without such affiliations are vulnerable to solitary confinement or physical assault, which increases the risks for new detainees.

Reports indicate that certain prisoners, such as sex offenders, informants, and gay individuals, are vulnerable in the prison facility. Some of the former inmates have reported that staff sometimes disclose sensitive information regarding an inmate to the prison leaders, thus posing more risks to the targeted inmates.

Analysts believe that it will not be easy for Bankman-Fried to adapt to the conditions in Victorville due to the environment plus the nature of his conviction. His rapid downward spiral from a leading figure in the crypto industry to a convicted felon has already garnered the attention of the financial press as well as the general public.

Parents seek presidential pardon as legal options dwindle

While Bankman-Fried adapts to his life at Victorville, his parents are yet in the process of seeking a potential presidential pardon. A recent report by Bloomberg revealed that Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, both Stanford University Law School professors, have connected with individuals close to US President Donald Trump.

These attempts are trying to build on Trump’s previous directions to pardon notorious personalities like Ross Ulbricht of Silk Road. But, unlike other pardoned individuals, Bankman-Fried received a lot of negativity from the public.

Arguments for clemency center on the claim that most FTX customers have reclaimed their funds, largely due to the recovery of the crypto markets after the platform collapsed. However, Bankman-Fried was found guilty of fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering and was sentenced to 25 years in prison and to forfeit $11 billion.

FTX’s collapse in November 2022 was the result of a scoop that revealed the sister firm Alameda Research engaged in the appropriation of billions of customers’ funds through a backdoor. The failure led to community outrage, especially in the financial industry, and efficiently increased advocacy for the regulation of cryptocurrencies.

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