Just before his cryptocurrency empire crumbled in November 2021, Sam Bankman-Fried considered going on Tucker Carlson’s show to “come out as a Republican” to rehabilitate his image. On Thursday, almost a year since Bankman-Fried, a co-founder of FTX, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for defrauding users of his cryptocurrency exchange, he finally fulfilled his plan.
From “a little side room” of Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, Bankman-Fried spent his 33rd birthday dishing to Carlson in a wide-ranging interview, which included new details about life in prison with his cellblock mate Sean "Diddy" Combs. As NBC has reported, Bankman-Fried and Combs, who has been charged with sex trafficking, are being housed in the same unit.
“I’ve only seen one piece of him, which is Diddy in prison, and he’s been kind to people in the unit; he’s been kind to me,” Bankman-Fried said on “The Tucker Carlson Show.” “It’s also — it’s a position no one wants to be in.”
Bankman-Fried, 33, was convicted in November 2023 of seven counts of wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering for swindling customers of FTX and lenders of Alameda Research, its associated hedge fund. Prosecutors said Bankman-Fried “perpetrated one of the biggest financial frauds in American history.”
A chief public information officer for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York declined to comment. Bankman-Fried’s crisis PR manager, Mark Botnick, told NBC News he resigned on Thursday after learning about the interview on X. Botnick had represented Bankman-Fried since November 2022.
"We can confirm this particular interview was not approved by the Federal Bureau of Prisons," an agency spokesperson told NBC News, adding that "for privacy, safety, and security reasons, we do not comment on the conditions of confinement for any individual in our custody, nor do we comment on media interviews."
Life behind bars
Bankman-Fried told Carlson that he has “made some friends” at the Brooklyn center, where, sources told NBC News, he is in a unit for detainees who need extra protection.
“It’s sort of dystopian,” Bankman-Fried said. “You know, the fortunate thing, the place I’m in, I’m not in ... I’m not in physical danger.”
He said the unit has defendants from high-profile cases and “a lot of ex-gangsters — or alleged ex-gangsters.” Asked how cellblock mates feel about being housed with him and Combs, Bankman-Fried theorized that some of them think “this is a big opportunity to meet people they wouldn’t otherwise get to meet.”
“They’re good at chess. That’s one thing I learned,” he added. “Former armed robbers who don’t speak English and probably didn’t graduate middle school, a surprising number of them are fairly good at chess. I’m not saying they’re grandmasters, but I lose games to them all the time. I was not expecting that.”
In addition to playing chess and working on his appeal, he told Carlson, Bankman-Fried has started to read novels again. Carlson said Bankman-Fried seemed “less jumpy” and “healthier” after two years in prison. He then said it seemed Bankman-Fried was “flying high on Adderall” in his previous TV appearances.
Bankman-Fried denied ever being on the drug. "But I was pretty out of it. My mind was racing because there were, you know, a billion things to keep track of," he added.
His changing political stance
Bankman-Fried described how his politics have evolved over the last five years, from being a major Biden donor to having a better relationship with Republicans than Democrats by the time he went to trial.
“One fact that might be relevant. In 2020, I was center-left, and I gave to Biden’s campaign,” he said. “I was optimistic he’d be a sort of solid center-left president. I spent the next few years in D.C. a lot. I made dozens of trips there and was really, really shocked by what I saw — not in a good direction — from the administration.
“By late 2022, I was giving to Republicans privately as much as Democrats. And that started becoming known right around FTX’s collapse, so that probably played a role,” he added, noting that he believed in ideas from both sides of the aisle.
In his trial, prosecutors showed a document in which he considered ways to rehabilitate his public image after FTX collapsed, including going on Carlson’s show to “come out against the woke agenda.” Carlson asked him whether he called in political favors during his trial, which Bankman-Fried denied, saying because he did not want to do “something inappropriate.”
His optimistic view on the future of crypto
Bankman-Fried said “hopefully” things are moving in the right direction for cryptocurrency under President Donald Trump, saying a lot of “good things” are already happening.
“So I think the big question is, you know, when rubber meets the road, like, will the administration do what needs to be done and figure out how to do it?” he said. “Right now, crypto is not at the point where it could become an everyday tool.”
Carlson also asked Bankman-Fried whether he believes “there is a lot of shady behavior in the crypto business.” Bankman-Fried said that a decade ago he might have agreed but that the business is now “a lot smaller” and more regulated.
Bankman-Fried’s financial status
Carlson asked Bankman-Fried whether he has “any money” left — and Bankman-Fried admitted “basically no.” In addition to his prison sentence, he was ordered to pay $11 billion in forfeiture.
“The company that I used to own ... had nothing intervened, today it would have about $15 billion of liabilities and about $93 billion of assets. So the answer should be, in theory, yes there was enough money to pay everyone back in kind,” he said. “But that’s not how things worked out. Instead, it all got roiled up in a bankruptcy.”
“It’s been a colossal disaster,” he said. “Not stopping that from happening is by far the biggest regret of my life.”
His birthday plans in prison
Bankman-Fried, who spoke with Carlson on Wednesday, said he has no plans. He said that he was never “big on birthdays on the outside” and that he was not looking forward to “celebrating another year in prison” for his 33rd birthday Thursday.
“So you’re not going to tell Diddy it’s your birthday tomorrow? I don’t believe you,” Carlson asked.
Bankman-Fried responded that while he was not planning to tell Combs about his birthday, “someone else might tell him.”
