Prison officials began transferring former crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried to a new facility early Wednesday, removing him from the Brooklyn, New York, jail where he’s resided for the past nine months, a spokesperson for Bankman-Fried said.
It wasn’t immediately clear where he was being transferred, but the spokesperson said Bankman-Fried told people close to him that he believes he is going to Mendota, California, a two-and-a-half-hour drive from his parents’ home near the Stanford University campus.
Mendota is home to one medium-security federal correctional institution with an adjacent minimum-security satellite facility, according to the Bureau of Prisons website.
Bankman-Fried had sought to stay in New York in the near term while preparing his appeal on multiple federal counts of fraud and conspiracy, for which he was sentenced in March to 25 years in prison.
A jury last fall found Bankman-Fried guilty of carrying out what prosecutors called one of the biggest financial crimes in US history. He was convicted of stealing billions of dollars from customers of his once high-flying cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, which collapsed into bankruptcy in late 2022.
The Bureau of Prisons declined to provide details, telling CNN that it doesn’t comment on “the conditions of confinement for any individual, including potential transfers,” citing security concerns.
—CNN’s Erin Burnett and Sabrina Souza contributed reporting.
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