2023 turned things around – for bad – for former Billionaire FTX CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried.
In January, Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas. In August remanded to jail by Judge Lewis Kaplan for witness tampering. In November, he was found guilty of all 7 counts of fraud and conspiracy.
But his story hasn’t ended: as he awaits sentencing in March – and of course, the appeal from his lawyers, SBF is learning to survive in prison – which can be tricky.
It now arises that he was ‘reportedly worried for his safety’ during his pretrial detention time at the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC), and even considered paying another inmate for ‘protection’.
The revelations come from former New York mob ‘enforcer’ Gene Borrello.
I got a chance to interview Gene Borrello, a former mob enforcer who was in jail with Sam Bankman-Fried. Gene tells me SBF was on suicide watch, was extorted & did not eat or shower for several days. We also discuss how Sam spends his time in jail, bullying, sentencing & more. pic.twitter.com/nszTXVUrSQ
— Tiffany Fong (@TiffanyFong_) November 30, 2023
Borrello told crypto blogger Tiffany Fong that he spent time with Bankman-Fried in the lead-up to his criminal trial.
The ‘crypto bro’ was ‘out of his element’ in jail, worried for his safety. A prisoner attempted to make SBF fearful, in order to extort him for ‘protection’ money.
Coin Telegraph reported:
“However, Bankman-Fried was housed in a unit of the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center that separated the wealthy and government cooperators from the general prison population, said Borello. ‘I kept saying: It’s not dangerous in here. You don’t need protection. Don’t worry about it. You ain’t got to pay nobody nothing. Don’t listen to these fucking kids’.”
Borrello confronted the other prisoner, leading to a fight.
“Borrello recalled speaking to Bankman-Fried, saying, ‘When he talks to you, he puts his head down. He’s very timid. He talks very nervous’. He also said he asked the former billionaire what he spent his money on.
‘I said, ‘What are you doing with the money? What kind of watch did you have?’ He said, ‘I had an Apple Watch’, Borrello recounted. ’I said, ‘What kind of car were you driving?’ He said, ‘A 2020 Toyota Camry’. Me and my friends go, ‘So, what the fuck did you steal the money for? You wanna look at it?’’”
Borello can’t go into ‘gen-pop’ due to his perceived wealth, because other inmates would again try to extort him.
“’He just didn’t understand how much trouble he was in’, Borrello said. ‘We were trying to explain to him that this is the feds, you’re accused of stealing billions of dollars. […] He just didn’t understand how screwed was until we started breaking it down to him’.”
Bankman-Fried was more nervous about jail than about his case – and held the belief that he’d only spend 20 years in prison.
“’We looked at him like he was crazy. I kept trying to explain to him, you’re never going to see the outside again’.”
A month ago, Bankman-Fried was found guilty of seven counts of money laundering, fraud and conspiracy, facing a maximum sentence – according to guidelines – of 115 years in jail.
Borello also alerted him that New York Judge Lewis Kaplan, overseeing his case, is the ‘strictest judge in the Southern District’.
“In most cases, judges go with the prosecution’s sentencing recommendation — yet to be filed in Bankman-Fried’s case — ‘which could be something out of this world’, said Borrello.”
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