On his 33rd birthday, former ‘crypto king’ Sam Bankman-Fried dished what it was like to share a jail unit with the disgraced rapper Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs. Almost a year after the FTX co-founder was sentenced to 25 years in prison, the convicted crypto fraudster confirmed that he had, in fact, become friends with the accused sex trafficker as they’re both being held in the notorious Brooklyn jail, Metropolitan Detention Centre.
Convicted crypto fraudster praises Diddy
In a video call released on Thursday, Bankman-Fried told Tucker Carlson, “I’ve only seen one piece of him, which is Diddy in prison. You know, he’s been kind to people in the unit.”
“What we see are just the people that are around us on the inside, rather than who we are on the outside,” he added. “He’s been kind to me. It’s a position no one wants to be in. Obviously he doesn’t, I don’t. It’s kind of a soul crushing place.”
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Diddy and Sam Bankman-Fried being housed in isolated dorm
The 33-year-old, who was convicted in November 2023 of seven counts of wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering for defrauding users of his cryptocurrency exchange, and 55-year-old Diddy are both being held in a 15-man dorm at the federal prison, per the New York Post.
Sam Bankman-Fried has been holed up at the Metropolitan Detention Centre’s extra-protection dorm since he was sentenced in March 2024. Meanwhile, Sean Combs is awaiting trial for sex trafficking, racketeering and prostitution charges. According to US District Judge Arun Subramanian’s ruling, his trial is scheduled to begin on May 5, 2025. Diddy has pleaded not guilty and vehemently denied all allegations.
This particular housing establishment at the lock-up isolates them from the general jail population due to their high-profile cases that need extra protection. Bankman-Fried noted “alleged ex-gangsters” were their dormmates. Accused UnitedHealthcare CEO assassin Luigi Mangione is also being held in the same jail complex.
Despite describing the environment as “sort of dystopian,” he told Carlso that the “fortunate thing” is that he’s not in physical danger. “I’ve made some friends,” he continued. The crypto fraudster foregrounded that being housed with fellow high-profile inmates has made some see their situation as “a big opportunity to meet people they wouldn’t otherwise get to meet.”
‘Forced labour’New indictment against Diddy ahead of the May trial
Around the same time as Bankman-Fried’s praises for Diddy made news, US prosecutors unveiled a new indictment against the ‘Bad Boy for Life.’ The second superseding indictment following his arrest last year doesn’t add new charges but includes additional allegations of “forced labour.”
It states Combs forced employees “to work long hours with little sleep.” He is believed to have used physical force, psychological harm, withholding money and threatening to tarnish their reputations to enforce the alleged work conditions.
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Furthermore, the new indictment alleges, “caused these employees to believe they would be harmed — including by losing their jobs — if they did not comply with his demands… With respect to one employee, Combs used physical force, psychological harm, financial harm and reputational harm, and /or threats of the same to cause the employee to engage in sex acts with Combs.”
Diddy is expected to be arraigned on the new indictment next week. “Mr. Combs has said it before and will say it again: he vehemently denies the accusations made by the SDNY [Southern District of New York],” his attorney, Marc Agnifilo, said in response to the additional allegations on Thursday. “He looks forward to his day in court when it will become clear that he has never forced anyone to engage in sexual acts against their will.”