Sam Bankman-Fried co-founded FTX in 2019 and was its CEO. Photo FTX
Sam Bankman-Fried is whining about his living conditions, forgetting that he is in jail and is not entitled to any different treatment than anyone else in prison. Now his lawyers are complaining to the judge that he needs access to computers and medication to help him concentrate if he is to be able to accurately assist in his defense. And Sam Bankman-Fried is also demanding vegan meals, apparently thinking he is staying at a hotel, not a prisoner in jail.
Sam Bankman-Fried is now sitting in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, a jail notorious for its harsh conditions, while he awaits the start of his October trial. US District Judge Lewis Kaplan revoked his bail after Bankman-Fried released personal writings sent to him by his former girlfriend and co-defendant Caroline Ellison who worked as a senior FTX executive.
Mark Cohen, an attorney representing Sam Bankman-Fried, told a Manhattan federal judge “He’s literally now subsisting on bread and water and sometimes peanut butter.” This, apparently, is because he will not eat anything that is not vegan.
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Christian Everdell, another lawyer representing Sam Bankman-Fried, told the judge “As this stands now there is no way for him to prepare his defense or reasonably assist in his defense,” adding that, “He’s being denied medication to focus.”
Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn responded that she is “reasonably confident they (the prison) provide vegetarian options,” adding that “A vegan diet may not be available but I assume a vegetarian is.”
Sam Bankman-Fried is an American entrepreneur, investor and was the founder and CEO of the now defunct FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange. Bankman-Fried was born in Stanford, California in 1992. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he studied physics. After graduation, he worked as a trading speculator at Jane Street Capital. In 2017, he founded Alameda Research, a cryptocurrency trading firm.
He founded FTX in 2019 which was one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world at one point. Bankman-Fried is one of the most famous people in the cryptocurrency industry.
Sam Bankman-Fried stands accused of eight counts of fraud and conspiracy. If convicted on all counts, he could be sentenced to as much as 115 years in jail. The charges came after his FTX crypto currency exchange company went bust a few weeks ago. The big question over the fall of FTX is “what happened to all of the money that people left with the company?” FTX was a crypto bank, so to speak, a place where people could park their virtual assets. But unlike with banks, there is no regulation over the handling of cryptos and FTX is said to have moved people’s cryptos around, basically that the company spent their money.
