Former FTX CEO, Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried, who recently received a 25-year prison sentence, has requested to be temporarily detained in the New York City area instead of California. In a filing made on April 8 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Bankman-Fried’s lawyers asked Judge Lewis Kaplan to approve an order allowing him to remain at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he has been held since August 2023. The purpose of this request is to facilitate access to his appellate counsel for his expected appeal against his conviction and sentencing.
Before Judge Kaplan announced Bankman-Fried’s 25-year sentence on March 28, attorney Marc Mukasey stated that they intended to appeal SBF’s conviction on seven felony counts. As of now, there has been no filing made in the online portal for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Some legal experts have suggested that Bankman-Fried may have his prison term reduced based on good behavior.
Initially, the judge had ruled that Bankman-Fried would serve his sentence at a medium- or low-security prison in the San Francisco Bay Area, likely due to the proximity of his family members. Prior to having his bail revoked in August 2023, the former FTX CEO was mostly confined to his parents’ home near Stanford University in California.
Bankman-Fried was one of the few individuals connected to the collapse of FTX and Alameda Research who pleaded not guilty and faced a jury trial. Others associated with the crypto firms charged in the same case, such as Caroline Ellison, Gary Wang, Nishad Singh, and Ryan Salame, pleaded guilty and made deals. Salame is scheduled to be sentenced on May 28, while the appearance dates for Wang, Ellison, and Singh before a judge remain unclear. Changpeng Zhao, who pleaded guilty to one felony count in a separate case involving cryptocurrency exchange Binance, will be sentenced on April 30.