SBF moved to solitary confinement over Tucker Carlson interview

Reports say that former FTX CEO Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried was put in solitary confinement because he did an interview with Tucker Carlson, a right-wing political commentator, that the prison officials did not allow.

SBF has been incarcerated at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center since August 2023.

NEW: SBF now in solitary confinement after giving unauthorized Tucker Carlson interview.

Since the illicit interview aired, the odds of an SBF pardon have nearly doubled. 👀https://t.co/LDzKAFH5cG

— Polymarket (@Polymarket) March 8, 2025

The Bureau of Prisons has strict rules about who can talk to prisoners and how they can do it. A representative for the US Bureau of Prisons said, “This particular interview was not approved.”

The interview with Tucker Carlson

Before his 33rd birthday, SBF did yet another interview from jail. This comes after SBF was given a 25-year prison term in 2024 for misusing customers’ funds tied to FTX and its sister company – Alameda Research.  

FTX filed for bankruptcy in November 2022.  When the exchange went down because of cash flow problems, Bankman-Fried and four other officials were charged with crimes in the US. Three people were sent to prison: SBF, Caroline Ellison, who used to be CEO of Alameda Research, and Ryan Salame, who used to be co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets. 

Bankman-Fried told Carlson, “I don’t think I was a criminal.” He also said that he thought Salame had been charged with “totally bogus crimes,” possibly because he was a Republican. 

SBF also talked about his time in jail and what he thinks about regulating crypto in the US. Bankman-Fried told Carlson that he was cautiously optimistic about Trump’s ability to change the crypto industry. 

Carlson did not ask the former CEO of FTX exactly if he thought he would get a pardon from US President Donald Trump. However, SBF seemed to agree with some Republican ideas during the interview.

In fact he said, “I had as a good relationship, probably better, with Republicans in DC as with Democrats by that point in time, although that wasn’t what the public thought.”  Since 2024, SBF has only given one other interview, to the conservative New York Sun. This suggests that they are trying to get along with Trump and the majority of politicians.

SBF said that he “didn’t want to do something inappropriate” when he asked US politicians to help him in 2022, even though he was facing criminal charges. Bankman-Fried was a well-known Democratic fundraiser who had given money to campaigns for Democrats and former US President Joe Biden. 

However, he said he had probably given just as much money to Republicans.

SBF is in the same prison as rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs who is being held on charges of sexual assault and sex trafficking. He said that he mostly ate rice and beans and that no one from FTX had come to see him. 

SBF’s efforts for an appeal

Bankman-Fried’s family and supporters, including his parents, law professors Joe Bankman and Barbara Fried, are apparently talking to a lawyer with ties to Trump’s 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns about getting their son a pardon. 

They haven’t talked to Trump directly yet, but sources say they want to use the president’s “transactional approach” to pardon to their advantage. 

In the interview, he indirectly suggested that Trump’s ties to Republicans in Washington might help his case. However, the call for mercy has not gained much support, and it is still unclear whether the efforts will be successful in persuading the president.

Another thing is, a group of doctors filed an amicus brief in support of Sam Bankman-Fried’s appeal, saying that his neurodivergence disorders may have had a big impact on his criminal trial. The co-founder of FTX has been identified with autism spectrum disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Doctors say he had “serious challenges” in court.

The brief, which eight neurodivergence experts signed, said that some of the decisions made during the hearing were bad for Bankman-Fried because of his condition.

From the crypto predictions platform Polymarket, the odds of an SBF pardon have nearly doubled since the interview was published.

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