Bankman-Fried punished with solitary confinement after Tucker interview

Tucker Carlson’s interview with a notorious fraudster reportedly landed the inmate in solitary confinement for circumventing “strict rules.”

Like a real world Arkham Asylum, Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center currently housed several of the most newsworthy alleged and convicted criminals around. Between the likes Sean “Diddy” Combs, charged with alleged sex trafficking and racketeering, to the alleged UnitedHealthcare CEO assassin Luigi Mangione, it was former cryptocurrency CEO Sam Bankman-Fried whom Carlson had interviewed and landed with some time in the hole.

According to a report from The New York Times, “The Bureau of Prisons has strict rules about who is allowed to communicate with inmates and which channels they can use.”

“After the interview with Mr. Carlson was posted, Mr. Bankman-Fried was placed in solitary confinement, a person briefed on the situation said,” detailed the newspaper that went on to note, “A representative for the Bureau of Prisons said ‘this particular interview was not approved.’ She declined to comment on whether Mr. Bankman-Fried, who turned 33 on Thursday, was in solitary confinement.”

As had been reported, Bankman-Fried had been sentenced to 25 years in prison in March 2024 after being found guilty on seven counts of fraud and charges related to conspiracy after his cryptocurrency firm FTX and another had launched Alameda Research and stolen $3 billion from customers.

In addition to his time behind bars, the fraudster was expected to complete three years of supervised release and pay $11 billion in restitution. For the time being, he told Carlson during the interview about adapting to new forms of currency trade that included muffins, bananas, packets of ramen and “a kind of disgusting-looking little foil package of fish in oil at room temperature.”

Sam Bankman-Fried is doing 25 years behind bars, and is now sharing a cell block with Diddy. He joins us from prison for an update on his new life.

(0:00) What Has Prison Been Like?
(2:28) Was SBF Ever on Adderall?
(4:42) SBF Meeting Diddy in Prison
(7:01) How Prison Has Changed… pic.twitter.com/mNSNktLibg

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) March 6, 2025

“One of the things that like you realize really quickly is, I mean, the scale of everything is so diminished in prison,” Bankman-Fried told the commentator. “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?”

Along with commenting on the surprising acumen inmates like armed robbers had for the game of chess, he also responded to Carlson’s inquiry about what it was like being held in the same unit as the hip-hop mogul Combs.

“He’s been kind to me,” said Bankman-Fried who also claimed he’d “made some friends” while behind bars. “Obviously, I’ve only seen one piece of him, which is Diddy in prison.”

The newspaper also detailed that an effort was underway led by supporters and the inmate’s parents to seek a pardon from President Donald Trump while consulting with Arizona attorney Kory Langhofer who’d previously worked on the president’s 2016 and 2020 campaign.

“The prosecution told a story about FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried that is not correct,” he argued to the Times. “If the public knew the full story, they would view it differently.”

Staff Writer

Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn’t researching current events and their impacts, you’ll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.

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