Bankman-Fried is Held Under Poor Conditions in the Famous MDC
- Judge Lewis Kaplan claimed Bankman-Fried attempted to tamper with a witness on two occasions.
- The Metropolitan Detention Center is known for its poor living conditions.
- Bankman-Fried’s attorney’s plan to appeal the court’s decision to revoke his bail.
- Bankman-Fried’s attorneys requested Kaplan in a letter on Monday to direct MDC to give their client daily prescriptions for depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has experienced a dramatic drop in his living standards after seeing his bail revoked on Friday. The 31-year-old will now spend the months leading up to his October fraud trial incarcerated in a Brooklyn jail that has come under fire for its “reprehensible” treatment of inmates, including Ghislaine Maxwell, a former friend of Jeffrey Epstein’s.
In a hearing on Friday, August 11, Judge Lewis Kaplan of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York said Bankman-Fried appears to have tampered with a witness by sending the personal writings of Caroline Ellison, a former lover, and associate, to a New York Times reporter.
The new ruling means that Bankman-Fried would have to adjust his living standard from the comfort of his parents’ Palo Alto home, where he was held on bail, to life at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC). According to reports, the MDC has had to deal with chronic staffing shortages and deplorable circumstances, including maggot-infested food, dirty cells, and power outages.
Public defenders have called the living standard at Bankman-Fried’s detention center “inhumane.” A prison guard reportedly pleaded guilty to accepting bribes to help an inmate smuggle drugs.
Interestingly, in 2019, inmates had to suffer freezing temperatures as a result of the facility’s heating and lighting system failing due to an electrical fire.
Mark Cohen, Bankman-Fried’s defense lawyer, plans to challenge the judge’s ruling. However, Kaplan denied Cohen’s plea for a stay of execution of the arrest warrant until the outcome of the appeal.
Kaplan said during Friday’s ruling,
My conclusion is there is probable cause to believe the defendant has attempted to tamper with witnesses at least twice. … There is a rebuttable presumption that there is no set of conditions that will ensure Bankman-Fried will not be a danger.
Bankman-Fried’s defense team maintained that he had a right to speak to the media and argued that the prosecution had been pushing for his imprisonment based on “innuendo, speculation, and scant facts.” They also argued that jailing their client would make it difficult to prepare for the trial and asked the judge to place him in a minimum-security jail in Putnam County, New York.
However, Judge Kaplan said he was not sure whether putting Bankman-Fried about 80km (50 miles) north of New York City was “doable”.
This will not be Bankman-Fried’s first jail experience. He was detained for about a week in the Bahamas at the Fox Hill Prison, which according to a US State Department report from 2021, was infested with rodents and had a shortage of restrooms.
Bankman-Fried is scheduled to stand trial on allegations of wire fraud, money laundering, securities fraud, commodities fraud, and other related conspiracy in October. The FTX founder will also be tried in March 2024 for other charges filed by the DOJ.
It is important to note that Judge Kaplan’s decision to jail Bankman-Fried before his trial does not mean he’s guilty of the charges filed by the DOJ and does not equal a prison sentence. A formal sentence will be given if the 31-year-old is found guilty of any charges.
Lawrence has covered some exciting stories in his career as a journalist, he finds blockchain-related stories very intriguing. He believes Web3 will change the world and wants everyone to be a part of it.
