The harsh conditions in the overcrowded Fox Hill Prison are a big change from his five-star penthouse.
The harsh conditions in the overcrowded Fox Hill Prison are a big change from his five-star penthouse, but may be far better than those he’ll experience awaiting trial in New York City’s jails.
FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried was “in good spirits” after spending his first night in The Bahamas’ Fox Hill Prison, which a U.S. State Department report called “harsh, overcrowded [and] rat-infested” last year, according to a local newspaper.
The Nassau Guardian reported on Dec. 15 that Acting Commissioner of Corrections Doan Cleare said that Bankman-Fried, who is accused of siphoning as much as $10 billion of FTX cryptocurrency exchange customers’ funds to help prop up his failing trading firm Alameda Research, is being held in the prison’s six-bed infirmary for an evaluation.
Until his arrest, the longtime Bahamas resident had been living with nine other top FTX executives in $40 million penthouse at the luxury Albany Resort
While no details were available as to why, his attorneys said in a bail hearing that Bankman-Fried takes medication daily to treat major depressive disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
He was arrested on Tuesday at the behest of the U.S. Department of Justice, and has indicated he may fight extradition. He is being held without bail after a Bahamian court found him to be a “flight risk.”
On Dec. 15, Bankman-Fried’s lawyers appealed the bail decision to The Bahamas’ Supreme Court, which is set to rule on Jan. 17
An extradition hearing on the battery of fraud and money laundering charges Bankman-Fried is facing — as a start — could take weeks or months.
The conditions at Fox Hill Prison are bad enough that the Minister of National Security has said the country will start work on a new prison in January.
That said, while the conditions in The Bahamas only prison are said to be bad, Bankman-Fried was indicted by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, meaning he would be held during trial — and again, bail is highly unlikely — in Manhattan or Brooklyn, where the conditions in the facilities holding pre-trial prisoners could be far worse and more violent.
