Federal officials began the process of transferring Sam Bankman-Fried to a new prison early Wednesday, overriding his wish to stay in New York while helping to prepare his appeal, according to a spokesman for the jailed FTX founder.
The spokesman said he couldn’t confirm Bankman-Fried’s destination, but people familiar with the matter said the founder of the cryptocurrency exchange was told in recent days that he would be moved to a federal correctional facility in Mendota, Calif.
A spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Prisons declined to comment on Bankman-Fried’s transfer, saying it only releases inmates’ locations after transfers are complete.
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In March, Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison for committing what prosecutors called one of the largest financial frauds in U.S. history.
Since last summer, Bankman-Fried has been jailed in New York. In April, his lawyers requested that he be allowed to stay at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn while helping to prepare briefs for his appeal. In the longer run, his team had pushed for Bankman-Fried to serve his sentence in California, so he could be closer to his parents’ home near Stanford University.
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Bankman-Fried learned that the transfer was in the works several days ago and was roused early Wednesday morning for the move, the people said.
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Mendota, located southeast of San Francisco, is home to both a medium-security prison and an adjacent minimum-security satellite camp. It wasn’t immediately clear which of the facilities would house Bankman-Fried, but due to the length of his sentence, the FTX founder is likely to be placed initially in the medium-security prison, under federal guidelines.
