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In May, Sam Bankman-Fried became perhaps the first person in history seeking to remain in Brooklyn’s notorious Metropolitan Detention Center. Sure, the place is rife with violence and vermin, food covered in maggots, and is so dangerous and understaffed that inmates are effectively in solitary with access to a shower only three days a week. But the FTX founder/fraudster did have to work on his appeal—and it was a doozy!—so he asked not to be moved to a prison in his native California in the interim.
It looked as if this request had met the same fate as pretty much all of his other requests to the legal system: SBF was sent off to Oklahoma City to await more permanent accommodations. A week later, the Bureau of Prisons—perhaps mindful that the judge the former crypto mogul would go on to call hopelessly biased against him had asked the Feds to pretty-please keep him at the MDC—returned SBF to the broken glass and moldy shower stalls alongside the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.
Perhaps Bankman-Fried didn’t merely want to beaver away at a surely hopeless appeal during a sweltering summer at a jail whose HVAC system is as questionable as the alibis of many of its residents. Perhaps he had word that he might soon be sharing a sleeping space with someone who might well be among his all-time favorite artists.
Sean “Diddy” Combs has been moved to a section of the New York City jail where convicted cryptocurrency fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried is being held, sources confirm to NBC News.
The area of the detention center is reserved for detainees who require special protection…. The unit is described as a barracks-style area currently housing 18 to 20 inmates who require special protection, according to the sources, ranging from high-profile defendants to individuals who cooperate with investigations. It is considered general population in nature, but with added security.
Anyway, the women in Diddy’s life may yet send him up the river for quite a bit longer than the 25 years his new roomie got, and given the work of his lawyers so far, that seems more likely than the former rap mogul might like. Meanwhile, the woman formerly in SBF’s life, who helped get her ex-boyfriend/boss that quarter, will soon learn whether she’ll be joining them in Brooklyn’s least-desirable residential development.
On Tuesday afternoon, [Caroline Ellison] is set to find out if her cooperation with prosecutors will keep her out of prison…. Prosecutors and lawyers for Ellison have urged [U.S. District Judge Lewis] Kaplan to be far more lenient, citing her remorse and extensive cooperation with the criminal investigation. Her lawyers have asked the judge not to sentence her to prison….
“The Government cannot think of another cooperating witness in recent history who has received a greater level of attention and harassment,” prosecutors wrote to the judge.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs moved to same section of New York City jail housing as Sam Bankman-Fried [CNBC]
Caroline Ellison, Star FTX Witness Turned Romance Novelist, Learns Her Fate [WSJ via MSN]
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