It wasn’t way back that Sean “Diddy” Combs—whose landmark debut album is titled No Means Out—and Sam Bankman-Fried had been on the high of their respective worlds: Combs, one of the profitable rappers and producers of his period, and Bankman-Fried a multi-billionaire founding father of the crypto change FTX. Each of their lives, although, took a darkish flip, and now the 2 disgraced celebrities have one thing else in frequent: a shared jail dormitory in a infamous Brooklyn detention heart, in response to reporting from the New York Instances and NBC.
Sam Bankman-Fried has been an inmate on the Metropolitan Detention Heart since August 2023, when a federal decide revoked his bail after he leaked diary entries from his former worker and one-time girlfriend Caroline Ellison to the New York Instances. Bankman-Fried confronted trial for the collapse of FTX, which at one time was valued at over $30 billion.
Bankman-Fried’s time on the jail has been tumultuous, along with his legal professionals combating for his launch throughout his trial, arguing that he didn’t have correct entry to laptops to be able to put together his protection. Additionally they mentioned that Bankman-Fried, a vegan, was subsisting on bread, water, and infrequently peanut butter. The decide repeatedly denied the request.
Human rights advocates and legal professionals have lengthy criticized situations at MDC, which is used to deal with detainees awaiting federal trials in New York Metropolis, together with well-known inmates reminiscent of the previous president of Honduras, whose legal professionals described his detention as being like a “prisoner of struggle.”
Impartial watchdogs have largely agreed, with a federal company investigating a weeklong energy outage in 2019 that left greater than 1,600 inmates in freezing temperatures and with out the flexibility to talk with their legal professionals. One other group, American Oversight, shared public data highlighting extreme pressure, delays in medical care, and sanitation points.
Regardless of the tough surroundings, Bankman-Fried elected to remain at MDC following his responsible conviction in November 2023, arguing that he could be nearer to his attorneys as he ready for his attraction.
Diddy joins G Lock and ‘gangster’ Bankman-Fried
Combs is a newer inmate after authorities arrested him final week for intercourse trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, and transportation to have interaction in prostitution. He pleaded not responsible, however a decide ordered him to be despatched to the detention heart with out being launched on bond.
Based on NBC, Combs and Bankman-Fried are each being held in an space of MDC that’s designed for detainees who require particular safety, reminiscent of celebrities and cooperators. Sources described the unit as a barracks-style space that homes 18-20 inmates, although it nonetheless thought-about to be common inhabitants.
A spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Prisons instructed the outlet, “For privateness, security, and safety causes the (FBOP) doesn’t present details about situations of confinement, together with housing assignments or inside safety practices for any explicit incarcerated particular person.”
It’s unclear how lengthy Bankman-Fried has been housed within the unit, and a spokesperson for the FTX founder didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. Influencer Tiffany Fong shared the primary picture of Bankman-Fried at MDC final February, displaying the previous billionaire standing subsequent to 4 different inmates and carrying a dishevelled shirt and gymnasium shorts.
One in all his dormmates, a former member of the Bloods gang who goes by the title G Lock, instructed Fong that Bankman-Fried wasn’t showering usually and had change into “skinny like a toothpick,” including that “Sam is a gangster.”