Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange who was convicted of fraud and conspiracy, was transferred out of a Brooklyn detention center on Wednesday morning, his spokesman said.
Mr. Bankman-Fried’s final destination wasn’t clear, his spokesman, Mark Botnick, said. Before the transfer, Mr. Bankman-Fried, 32, told people close to him that he expected to be moved to a federal correctional facility in Mendota, Calif., a person with knowledge of the matter said.
A representative for the Bureau of Prisons declined to comment on Mr. Bankman-Fried, citing “privacy, safety and security reasons.” A spokesman for the prosecutors who oversaw Mr. Bankman-Fried’s case did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a court filing on Wednesday afternoon, Lewis A. Kaplan, the judge overseeing his case, said the court “recommends” that the Bureau of Prisons keep Mr. Bankman-Fried at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. Mr. Bankman-Fried had asked to remain there while he worked on an appeal challenging his conviction.
Mr. Bankman-Fried’s transfer was reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal.
In March, Mr. Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison after he was convicted of defrauding FTX’s customers, investors and lenders. Prosecutors said that he orchestrated a yearslong fraud, siphoning $8 billion from customer accounts to finance venture capital investments, political contributions and real estate purchases.
When he was charged, Mr. Bankman-Fried was granted bail and confined to his parents’ house in Northern California. Judge Kaplan revoked his bail in August, saying that he had tried to intimidate a witness. Since then, Mr. Bankman-Fried has been confined to the Metropolitan Detention Center.
