Sam Bankman-Fried moved to Oklahoma transit facility after unsanctioned Tucker Carlson prison interview

The disgraced former CEO of defunct crypto exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, has been transferred to a federal transit facility just a few weeks after conducting an unsanctioned remote video interview with Tucker Carlson at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. 

According to an update to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website on Thursday, Bankman-Fried was moved to the Oklahoma City Federal Transfer Center, starting the process of transferring him to a permanent prison to serve out the remainder of his fraud sentence. His release date is scheduled for Nov. 17, 2044.

Oklahoma City FTC serves as a central hub for the U.S. federal prison system. Inmates are temporarily housed there before being transferred to other federal prisons or correctional institutions. The facility is part of the Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System, nicknamed "Con Air."

'I don't think I was a criminal'

Earlier this month, Bankman-Fried once again claimed that he was wrongfully convicted in his interview from prison with Carlson — part of his family's alleged efforts to seek clemency for the former crypto poster boy amid a wave of presidential pardons. In February, Bankman-Fried also spoke with the New York Sun about his rightward political shift in a less-than-subtle attempt to find common ground with President Donald Trump over the issue of political weaponization. 

"I don't think I was a criminal," Bankman-Fried told Carlson, responding to questions about crime in the crypto industry. "I mean, I think the DOJ thinks that I may have been, but I don't care," he said, suggesting that FTX was fully solvent and would have had an incredible $100 billion in assets against about $15 billion in liabilities today. 

Mark Botnick, who served as the FTX founder's crisis manager since the exchange collapsed in November 2022, quit following the interview after prison officials confirmed it had not been approved.

However, the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where Bankman-Fried has been held since August 2023, was never meant to be the permanent location for his sentence, with the majority of his 24.25 years behind bars likely to be served in a lower-security prison in California's Bay Area closer to his parents' home near Stanford University, The Block previously reported.

Judge Lewis Kaplan recommended this at the conclusion of his criminal fraud trial, after a jury found him guilty of seven fraud and money-laundering charges related to the $11 billion collapse of FTX and Alameda Research.