The Journal. - Sam's Life in a Brooklyn Jail from "The Trial of Crypto's Golden Boy"

Episode Date: March 26, 2024

We’re back for Sam Bankman-Fried’s sentencing. After the crypto golden boy was found guilty on all counts in November, this week he’ll find out how long he will serve in federal prison. Caitlin Ostroff and Rachel Humphreys get an insight into Bankman-Fried’s life for the past few months, from unappetizing prison food to tutoring inmates. Further Listening: - The Trial of Crypto’s Golden Boy  Further Reading: - Sam Bankman-Fried’s Life Behind Bars: Crypto Tips and Paying With Fish  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Caitlin, we're back. Did we ever really leave? It feels like Groundhog Day. Yeah, it does a little bit, but we're actually back after a roughly five-month hiatus, which I almost can't believe, because this is another big week in the Sam Bankman-Fried case. This week, Bankman-Fried will be sentenced.

Yeah, and in some ways, it all comes down to this week. You'll remember he was found guilty on all of the seven charges he faced last November. And recently, I got to go back to the Southern District of New York Courthouse for Bankman-Fried's first appearance since the verdict. Yeah, a little bit of a sore point that you went to the SDNY courthouse without me, Caitlin. I told you about the hearing. It was last minute. I will produce the Slack messages if required. Okay, well, I'm sure you can just like make it up to me with a coffee at some point anyway.

But tell me about that hearing and what happened. Yeah, so this was a hearing with Bankman Freed's new lawyers. And it was the first time that I had seen him since November. And he looked very different. During the trial, he wore a suit and a tie and had a sharp haircut. But on this day, he was in ankle cuffs. He was wearing this tan and brown jumpsuit, and you could see he had lost a lot of weight by looking at him. His beard was roughly shaven, and it was just this really different image of Bankman Freed after several months in jail.

And we will see him back in court again this Thursday for his sentencing, and the stakes are very high. Judge Lewis Kaplan, who people may remember from the trial, is back and he will preside over this hearing that will determine how much time Backman-Fried will spend in federal prison. He faces a sentence of up to 110 years. But before we get into that, we have a lot to catch up on. From the Journal, this is the trial of crypto's golden boy. I'm Caitlin Ostroff. And I'm Rachel Humphries.

Coming up, mackerel, undercooked rice, and exam tutoring. Bankman Freed's time behind bars. We'll see you next vacation. Ready to kick off? Discover exciting games and events. Plus, find amazing hidden gems in cities full of adventures, delicious food, and diverse cultures. You'll love it so much you'll want to extend your stay beyond the matches. Get the ball rolling on your soccer getaway. Head to visittheusa.com. so sam bankman freed has been held in a jail in brooklyn since august which was before his trial if you remember judge lewis caplan revoked bankFried's bail because he found probable cause Bankman-Fried attempted to intimidate witnesses. And so since his trial, Bankman-Fried's been waiting for his sentencing. And he also at one point, Caitlin, faced the possibility of a second trial.

Yeah, but that second trial is not happening. It had been scheduled for March 11th, and it had to do with accusations that Bankman Freed conspired to bribe Chinese officials and conspired to commit bank fraud. But ultimately, prosecutors decided not to pursue it. Which, honestly, personally, I was kind of glad about. Oh, God, I did not want to do this again. It would have meant a lot more podcast episodes for people to listen to. Why was the case dropped? So prosecutors said they decided to drop it because they wanted to get a quick resolution for people to listen to. Why was the case dropped? So prosecutors said they decided to drop it

because they wanted to get a quick resolution for people and because they still hadn't gotten permission from the Bahamas to bring charges against Bankman Freed. You'll remember that he was extradited from the Bahamas on specific charges. The government had tacked on additional charges after and so there was a back and forth as to if they could bring those. And prosecutors also said that, you know, it was kind of pointless to bring a second trial because they'd actually be presenting a lot of evidence they already put up in the first trial. Okay, so Bangman Freed has been waiting for sentencing. Let's talk about what life has been like for him behind bars in a place that I remember Judge Kaplan describing during the trial as not on anybody's list of five-star facilities.

Yeah, defense lawyers have long criticized MDC, Metropolitan Detention Center, for its poor condition. But our colleagues James Finelli and Corinne Ramey have done some reporting on what Bankman Freed's life has been like at the jail. And it's a far cry from the penthouse that he was living at in the Bahamas. First off, Bankman Freed is not in a typical cell. I think we often think of, you know, bars and kind of small space. He's in more like a dormitory. And so it's a room filled with a bunch of beds with different inmates. So it kind of sounds like a hostel, but with what I imagine are some interesting roommates. Yeah, Bingman Freed's dormmates aren't the people that you would kind of think of in

a hostel. They include people involved in high profile drug cases, including the former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez. Fascinating. I'm trying to imagine what he and Bankman Freed would talk about. And according to Jim and Corey's reporting, Bankman Freed has also been spending his time giving out crypto advice to guards. And he's been trading, but not crypto. No, I mean, Benjamin Freed has had some access to a computer, but certainly he's not doing crypto trading. What he's trading is, oddly enough, fish. Sure. Specifically packets of

mackerel. Apparently people in jail don't trade cigarettes anymore. The Federal Bureau of Prisons has banned smoking. And so now that that has fallen out of fashion, packets of mackerel have fallen into fashion. And they're oddly the go-to currency. They call them macks for short. Interesting. I'm like thinking about how I wonder if people like eating packets of mackerel as much as they like smoking. But that's like a thought for another time. I can't imagine that it has totally the same appeal. But like, what do I know? But according to our reporting, you know, Bankman Freed, in one instance, traded some of those macks for a haircut before the trial.

But also, as you and I were researching for this podcast have figured out that Max has taken on another form of life which is that after our colleagues reported that they are now a cryptocurrency so someone went out and made a cryptocurrency after that story came out yeah someone was like oh this is hilarious Bankman Freed is trading Max in jail like let us go trade Max as well. It's so crypto. It's so crypto. But we've also been able to get an incredible insight into what life in jail is like for Bankman Freed through a letter written by one of his fellow inmates. Now, this is one of many letters that have been submitted to the court before sentencing by Bankman Freed supporters. And this one is from a former NYPD officer called Carmine Simpson,

who pleaded guilty to one count of sexual exploitation of a child. Yeah, he describes getting to know Bankman-Fried's altruistic goals and said that Bankman-Fried is still that person. He wants to make the world a better place despite being thrown in jail. And Simpson, in his letter, points to the fact that Bankman-Fried is still committed to being a vegan in prison. He's been a vegan for years. And he said that Bankman-Fried's meals are often undercooked rice, a scoop of, quote, disgusting-looking beans, and weak old brown lettuce.

And so Simpson kind of invokes this as, you know, Bankman Freed staying true to his commitment not to mistreat animals. Yeah, that food, I have to say, sounds pretty grim. And Simpson also just describes the jail as inhumane. He talks about lockdowns and says there's just a lack of basic items in the jail, like toothpaste. And then there's also another letter written to support Bankman Freed that tells us how he's been passing the time. This comes from his mother, Barbara Freed, who says her son has

spent hours helping inmates prepare their defense. And he also runs a tutoring session to help them for their GED exams. Yeah, I mean, probably within the confines of the MDC, it'd be hard and fast to find a better math tutor. But so that's kind of been Bankman Fade's life behind bars. And then, as we alluded to earlier, he's also had this big shakeup in his legal team, and we'll get to that next.

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two names that will be seared into my brain for perpetuity due to the length of the trial. But they don't represent Bankman Freed anymore. Okay. Does that have anything to do with the fact that Bankman-Fried was found guilty on all counts at the end of his trial? Well, it is fairly common for defendants to hire new lawyers at this point, especially if they have more experience with sentencing. But, you know, we sat through the trial and at times I thought things with the old defense team could have gone a little more smoothly. Cohen would have witnesses

repeat similar statements and it would sometimes take a while for him to make a point versus the prosecutors. And, you know, Cohen would do cross-examination of witnesses and sometimes it just sort of missed the mark. Yeah. And we talked about this on episodes during the trial. Judge Kaplan would become very frustrated with Cohen and Evadel at times for requesting sidebars, which were, you know, discussions that we couldn't hear in the court about. They played that white noise that we really loved. Yeah, I haven't missed that. And he just seemed frustrated that they seemed to generally slow down proceedings.

They weren't seemingly as efficient as the prosecution were. Right. And as you said, after weeks of complex evidence and us basically living at the courthouse, Bankman-Fried was found guilty on all counts by the jury

in a very short period of time, just a couple of hours. Yeah, I think I'm still getting over that rush back into the courthouse when the verdict came in, to be honest. You know, we were very shocked about it at the time. Okay, so who are Bankman Freed's new lawyers? Yeah, they are Mark McKasey and Tori Young. And I got to see them at that short hearing a couple of weeks ago.

They come off really well manicured and confident. And remember that Judge Kaplan, who's been citing over the trial, he will be the one determining Bankman-Fried's sentence. And so Bankman-Fried's team is really hoping to put a new foot forward with the judge. And McKasey particularly has a reputation for getting shorter than expected sentences for some of his clients. And so possibly that's been a factor in Bankman-Fried's choice of who should represent him for sentencing. Okay, so Bankman-Fried has new lawyers,

which could make this interesting. And we've already got a chance to see their arguments for why their client should serve a reduced sentence. Yeah, and we've also gotten a huge document with the prosecution's reasoning as to why it should be much longer than the defense wants. But we will dive into that tomorrow. That's all for today, Tuesday, March 26th.

The Trial of Crypto's Golden Boy is part of The Journal, which is a co-production of Spotify and The Wall Street Journal. I'm Caitlin Ostroff. And I'm Rachel Humphries. Thanks for listening. We'll be back tomorrow.