FTX Founder SBF Shipped to Oklahoma via ‘Con Air’ After Unauthorized Jailhouse Interview

FTX co-founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried isn’t killing time with Sean “Diddy” Combs in New York anymore. 

Following a behind-bars appearance on the “The Tucker Carlson Show” earlier this month, the one-time crypto wunderkind has been shipped to Oklahoma.

Bankman-Fried is currently being held at FTC Oklahoma City, a transfer center with around 1,450 inmates, according to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons. Days ago, he was at Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, where the former hip-hop mogul awaits trial. It is likely the penultimate stop for SBF before he lands in a prison where he will serve the rest of his 25-year sentence for defrauding users of the exchange he co-founded. 

Instead of taking a long bus ride, often described by inmates as “diesel therapy,” Bankman-Fried likely hitched a ride via “Con Air,” according to Sam Mangel, a white-collar prison consultant.

“You’re shackled on an airplane,” Mangel told Decrypt. “It is a usually very old [McDonnell Douglas] DC-9 that has no amenities whatsoever.”

The disgraced 33-year-old, who celebrated his birthday around the time of his unsanctioned jailhouse interview, was awoken around 3 a.m. Eastern Time before saying goodbye to MDC, The Wall Street Journal first reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.

For Bankman-Fried, the facility’s “barrack-style” living space for high-profile inmates had been home since August 2023, when his bail was revoked over witness tampering concerns.

Bankman-Fried was sentenced after a Manhattan jury found him guilty on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy. To this day, he maintains his innocence, recently saying, “I don’t think I’m a criminal,” as he works toward appealing his conviction.

Bankman-Fried’s trial exposed a sweeping fraud scheme at FTX, which involved secretly siphoning billions of dollars in customer funds to finance risky investments, donate to U.S. politicians, and purchase luxury real estate in the Bahamas—where the firm was based.

It’s unlikely that Bankman-Fried will be held in Oklahoma for long, Mangel said. Most of the consultant’s clients are held there for less than two weeks before being sent elsewhere.

Bankman-Fried recently broke his silence on X, formerly known as Twitter. Last month, he mused about the difficulty of firing employees and corporate management.

Bankman-Fried’s legal team has pushed him to serve out his sentence closer to his parents’ home near Stanford University in California, per The Wall Street Journal.

Bankman-Fried will likely end up in a minimal-security facility, possibly in Lompoc, California, Mangel said. Last May, he was told he was heading to prison in Mendota, California, according to a separate report from The Wall Street Journal.

Though his parents are reportedly pursuing a pardon from U.S. President Donald Trump, Bankman-Fried’s name still serves as a wedge on Capitol Hill. On Thursday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren hurled it toward Paul Atkins, Trump’s pick to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission, during the former commissioner’s confirmation hearing.

“Mr. Atkins has spent almost his entire career helping billionaire CEOs like Sam Bankman-Fried, who committed one of the biggest financial frauds in U.S. history,” she said, referring to work done previously by Atkins’ consultancy firm.

Edited by James Rubin