Convicted cryptocurrency fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried told Daily Caller News Foundation co-founder Tucker Carlson what his prison life is like during an interview posted on Thursday.
Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison on March 28, 2024 after a jury found him guilty on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy-related charges in November 2023.
Bankman-Fried, on “The Tucker Carlson Show,” told Carlson his new form of currency in prison, his diet and other details about his experience.
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“You went — maybe more than anyone I’ve ever talked to — from one world to a completely different world,” Carlson said. “So you were in the world of digital money, now you’re in a world with no money. What’s the medium of exchange in prison?”
“You know, it’s whatever people have,” Bankman-Fried answered before explaining the type of muffins he trades. He likened them to the “plastic-wrapped” muffins that gas stations sell.
“That’s like standard,” Bankman-Fried said. “It’s that, a packet of ramen soup or a kind of disgusting-looking little foil package of fish in oil at room temperature.”
“[Muffins are] a currency of need. They wouldn’t be anything else. They don’t have that much to recommend themselves, but at the end of the day, they’re kind of fungible,” he added. “They’re not exactly fungible, but they’re close enough. You know, two muffins are kind of similar so you kind of trade them for each other. They kind of work, as long as you’re never dealing with more than, like, $5, right? Because if you wanted to do a $200 transaction in muffins — I mean, it doesn’t work physically, right?”
Carlson responded that it is “unwieldy” and Bankman-Fried agreed.
“One of the things that like you realize really quickly is, I mean, the scale of everything is so diminished in prison,” he continued. “You see people getting into a fistfight over a single banana — not ’cause they even care about it that much, but because what else is there to channel your caring into?”
Carlson said that was “grim” and Bankman-Fried agreed again. He asked if Bankman-Fried eats the muffins or just uses them for currency.
“I don’t actually eat them. I mostly eat rice and beans and ramen,” he said
“Wow. Well, it looks like it’s been good for you,” Carlson said.
Bankman-Fried co-founded and was CEO of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, which collapsed in November 2022 following a run on its platform after allegations of mishandling billions in customer funds emerged.
The convicted fraudster gave over $30 million overwhelmingly to back Democrat-aligned causes. He was the second-largest individual contributor to such causes during the 2022 midterm election cycle, according to The Washington Post’s analysis of Federal Election Commission data.
He “misappropriated and embezzled FTX customer deposits, and used billions of dollars in stolen funds for a variety of purposes, including … to help fund over a hundred million dollars in campaign contributions to Democrats and Republicans to seek to influence cryptocurrency regulation,” according to the August 2023 indictment against him.
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