- Sam Bankman-Fried, the crypto fraudster serving a 25-year sentence, spoke with Tucker Carlson.
- Bankman-Fried is bunking near Sean “Diddy” Combs, who is facing sex trafficking charges.
- Bankman-Fried said he’s made friends and they play chess.
Sam Bankman-Fried talked about life behind bars in a wide-ranging prison interview with Tucker Carlson.
Between crypto chatter and sharing his strategies for making friends in prison, Bankman-Fried also opened up about living alongside Sean “Diddy” Combs in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center where both men are being held.
“He’s been kind,” Bankman-Fried said of Diddy. The rapper was arrested last year and is awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Bankman-Fried, meanwhile, was found guilty of seven counts of fraud and conspiracy in late 2023 at a criminal trial that dissected the fall of FTX, his defunct cryptocurrency exchange.
“I’ve made some friends,” Bankman-Fried told the former Fox News anchor. “It’s a weird environment. It’s sort of a combination of a few other high profile cases and then a lot of, you know, ex gangsters, alleged ex gangsters.”
Carlson posted a video of the 40-minute interview on social media on Thursday. He called Bankman-Fried and Combs “two of the most famous prisoners in the world,” asking Bankman-Fried what it’s like living in such close quarters.
“I’ve only seen one piece of him, which is Diddy in prison. He’s been kind to people in the unit. He’s been kind to me. It’s a position no one wants to be in. Obviously, he doesn’t, I don’t,” Bankman-Fried said. “It’s kind of a soul crushing place for the world in general, and what we see are just the people that are around us on the inside rather than who we are on the outside.”
Bankman-Fried turned 33 on Thursday but downplayed the milestone to Carlson.
“You’re not going to tell Diddy it’s your birthday tomorrow? I don’t believe you,” Tucker joked during the interview, which was apparently filmed Wednesday.
“Someone else might, but I’m not,” Bankman-Fried replied.
Aside from life in prison — where Bankman-Fried said he plays chess with and loses to accused armed robbers and hoards muffins as a form of currency — he discussed his thoughts on foreign aid, crypto, and having children.
Bankman-Fried says he expects to be in his late 40s when released from prison — if he’s not pardoned first.
When Carlson asked whether he thinks he’ll make it that long, the ex-crypto mogul said he didn’t know.
The Bureau of Prisons declined to comment on Bankman-Fried’s interview.
This story will be updated.
