Sam Bankman-Fried Separated in Isolation Following Unapproved Tucker Carlson Interview: Report

Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of FTX, has reportedly been placed in solitary confinement after participating in an interview with right-wing commentator Tucker Carlson without the consent of prison officials.

A representative from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons confirmed to The New York Times on March 7 that the interview had not received authorization.

Following its release, Bankman-Fried was moved to solitary confinement at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, where he has been held since August 2023.

Strict Prison Regulations Limit Inmate Communications and Contacts

Prison regulations strictly govern inmate communications, specifying who may contact them and by what means.

The interview, which was published on Carlson’s YouTube channel on March 6, quickly gained popularity, accumulating over 730,000 views.

During the conversation, Bankman-Fried discussed his experiences in prison and shared his thoughts on cryptocurrency regulation in the U.S. He also asserted that he does not consider himself “a criminal.”

Although Carlson did not directly inquire whether Bankman-Fried anticipated a pardon from former President Donald Trump, the FTX founder seemed receptive to certain Republican perspectives.

In the aftermath of the interview, speculation regarding a possible Trump pardon increased.

Crypto prediction platform Polymarket noted on X that the odds of an SBF pardon “almost doubled” following the interview’s release.

If SBF wasn’t in jail, he could be at the crypto summit in Washington right now.

— Andre Cronje (@AndreCronjeTech) March 8, 2025

Comparisons have also been made to Trump’s decision on January 21 to pardon Ross Ulbricht, the creator of the Silk Road darknet market, who had served 12 years in prison.

Meanwhile, Bankman-Fried’s legal team continues to challenge his conviction. In September 2024, his attorneys filed an appeal against his 25-year prison sentence and 7 felony convictions.

The 102-page appeal contends that he was “never presumed innocent,” citing media coverage and prosecutorial bias as factors that unfairly impacted his case.

SBF’s Neurodivergence Issues Affected Trial

As reported, a group of doctors submitted an amicus brief in support of Sam Bankman-Fried’s appeal, asserting that his criminal trial may have been significantly influenced by his neurodivergence issues.

The FTX co-founder, who has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), faced “serious challenges” during the court proceedings, according to the doctors.

The brief, signed by eight doctors specializing in neurodivergence, emphasized that several rulings during the trial were detrimental to Bankman-Fried due to his conditions.

The amicus brief also coincided with another filing by a group of bankruptcy law professors who expressed concerns regarding the intersection of FTX’s bankruptcy case and Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial.

While they did not take a position supporting either side, the professors argued that the collaboration between the FTX bankruptcy estate and the prosecution could set a “dangerous precedent,” promoting the use of Chapter 11 proceedings to support concurrent criminal prosecutions.

They noted that the assistance provided by the FTX bankruptcy estate to the prosecutors was “extraordinary compared to previous cases” such as Enron and WorldCom in the early 2000s.

The professors also criticized the swift pace of Bankman-Fried’s trial, which they claimed led jurors to mistakenly believe that FTX customers would receive no compensation.

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