SBF maintains his innocence as he trades rice in jail
Original author: Jesse Coghlan
Compiled by: Odaily Planet Daily Husband
This is the first time SBF has spoken in person with the media since being incarcerated at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn in August 2023. In an interview published on May 9, SBF spoke with William Cohan of Puck News, which was organized by SBFs mother, Barbara Fried.
According to the interview, SBFs diet is mainly vegetarian. Since the vegetarian meals in MDC make other prisoners feel smelly like feces, he mainly lives on beans and rice, and rice has become a trading currency within MDC. SBF even joked that compared to his previous life as a high-frequency trader, the arbitrage opportunities in prison are much better.
According to Puck News, SBF has lost a lot of weight, losing 25 pounds (11 kg), not so fat anymore, not so nervous, not so restless, and no bags under his eyes. And during the interview, SBF almost always stared into Cohan s eyes, which was rarely seen before. And, he sadly admitted that he had learned to pretend that he was living well.
SBFs living area is a large open dormitory that the MDC once built for female prisoners. He lives with 35 other male prisoners - according to reports, half of them are murderers who have compromised with the government. However, according to SBF, prison life is very boring. There are only four TVs and a tablet that cannot connect to the Internet for entertainment. He can only play games on the tablet. Although there are many murderers living with his cellmates, SBF is not worried about his own safety. Instead, he often sleeps poorly because his cellmates often wake him up - they always ask SBF how much rice he has and want to exchange it.
Although SBFs prison life was colorful because of rice, he never gave up on getting rid of the crime and always insisted that he was a scapegoat. Last month, SBF filed a notice saying that he was appealing the fraud and money laundering charges.
Additionally, SBF speaks with his new attorney for about an hour almost every weekday—and after taking the approved prescription medication, SBF is very clear in his communications.
SBF insisted in the interview that he was framed as a scapegoat for FTXs bankruptcy, and believed that his only negligence was to put FTX in a position vulnerable to bank runs and malicious behavior by competitors, and believed that the reasonable punishment should be civil, not criminal.
Reporter Cohan noted that SBF still does not believe it committed a crime and portrays itself as an innocent participant who was not given adequate opportunities to consult with prosecutors. And SBF is not apologetic for being convicted of helping to embezzle approximately $8 billion in customer funds.
SBF stressed that handing over the company to FTXs legal team was the culprit for framing him as the companys bankruptcy; if he had stayed in the leadership position of FTX, the company would not have gone bankrupt, but would have been a thriving company worth $80 billion. He added that after his lawyers convinced him that running both the trading company and FTX was a conflict of interest, he should have tried harder to find someone other than his ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison to lead Alameda, or simply ignored them and continued to run both companies.
SBF has asked to stay at MDC until he files his appeal, which should be in July. But under the law, SBF can be transferred at any time, most likely to a central California prison close to where his parents are. If that happens, SBF could take a prison bus across the country for four months to get to the California prison.
