SBF trades rice in prison and maintains his innocence

Author: Jesse Coghlan, CoinTelegraph; Compiler: Tao Zhu, Golden Finance

FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried has maintained his innocence despite being sentenced to 25 years in prison for fraud. While planning an appeal, he began trading commodities — namely, bags of rice.

In his first face-to-face conversation with the media since being incarcerated at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn in August 2023, SBF spoke to William Cohan of Parker News in an interview published on May 9, with the participation of SBF’s mother, Barbara Fried.

The former FTX CEO’s diet consists of vegan meals that his fellow inmates say “literally [smells] like shit,” so he subsists on beans and rice — the latter of which “has become one of the currencies within the MDC.”

The Jane Street Capital alumnus and co-founder of trading firm Alameda Research reportedly joked that arbitrage opportunities were much better in prison than in his former life as a high-frequency trader.

SBF has “slimmed down a lot,” losing 25 pounds (11 kg), is “less dumpy, less manic, less irritable,” and has no more bags under his eyes, Parker reported.

He looked Cohan in the eye “almost all the time” during the interview — something he “rarely did” before — but the incarcerated founder admitted he had “become good at pretending” he was doing well.

Source: Tiffany Fong

SBF and 35 other male prisoners were isolated in a large, open dormitory-style room. Half of these prisoners were reportedly murderers who collaborated with the government.

He was reportedly bored with only four televisions and a tablet computer that didn't connect to the internet to play games.

He wasn't worried about his safety but didn't sleep well because other inmates woke him up to ask about his rice because they wanted to barter it.

SBF considers him a 'scapegoat'

Last month, SBF filed an application saying he was appealing his fraud and money laundering convictions, which his lawyers said he would do after being found guilty in November.

Cohan said he spoke to a new lawyer for "about an hour almost every weekday" and that the prescription medication he was approved for gave him "clear thinking."

The former exchange head told Cohan that he was “destined to be the scapegoat” for the FTX collapse — his only misstep, he said, was negligence that left FTX in a position “vulnerable to bank runs and unfair behavior by competitors.” “A reasonable increase in penalties would be civil penalties, not criminal penalties.

Cohan noted that SBF “still does not believe he committed any crime” and portrayed himself as an innocent participant who was not given the opportunity to fully negotiate with prosecutors.

He is also “not entirely apologetic” for his conviction for helping to embezzle an estimated $8 billion in client funds.

SBF believes that if he had remained at the helm of FTX, the company would not have gone bankrupt but would have become a thriving $80 billion company.

He added that 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, after his lawyers convinced him that running both the trading firm and FTX was a conflict of interest.

SBF asked to remain at the MDC until he files his appeal in July. However, he could be transferred at any time and would likely be placed in a prison near his parents - on the other side of the country in California.

If that happens, he would reportedly likely board a prison bus and travel across the country, which could take up to four months.