"I've only seen one piece of him": Sam Bankman Fried reveals what it's like being in the same prison as Diddy

Sam Bankman-Fried, a convicted fraudster, recently described what it's like to live with the imprisoned rapper Diddy in a jail unit. At the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn, Bankman-Fried is incarcerated alongside the rapper pending trial.

In a recent online interview with Tucker Carlson, which was posted on X on Thursday, March 6, Bankman-Fried was questioned about his fellow prisoner. Carlson asked,

“Have you made friends there? Are you hanging with Diddy? I think he’s in there with you.”

Bankman-Fried replied,

“He is.. It’s, I don’t know, he’s been kind. I’ve made some friends. It’s a weird environment. It’s sort of a combination of a few other high-profile cases and then a lot of ex-gangsters—or alleged ex-gangsters.”

Bankman-Fried further told Carlson,

“Obviously I’ve only seen one piece of him, which is Diddy in prison… He’s been kind to people in the unit. He’s been kind to me. It’s a position that no one wants to be in. Obviously he doesn’t."

He further added,

“I don’t. It’s kind of a soul-crushing place for the world in general. What we see are just the people that are around us on the inside other than who we are on the outside.."

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Diddy Combs and Sam Bankman Fried shared a cell together

Bankman-Fried further talked about what it's like to share a cell with Diddy Combs in an interview with Tucker Carlson. According to Bankman-Fried, the interactions between Combs and the other prisoners in their unit have been "really interesting."

Carlson further pressed for additional information regarding Bankman-Fried's contacts with Diddy and enquired about the hip-hop mogul's character in prison. He then enquired about the other convicts' opinions regarding living in the same unit as "two of the most famous prisoners in the world," referring to Combs and Bankman-Fried.

To this, Bankman-Fried said,

“Well, it’s a really interesting question and, of course, some of them think, "Wow, this is a big opportunity to meet people they wouldn’t otherwise get to meet"... It makes sense from their perspective but... that is not how I think about prison..."

Additionally, although Bankman-Fried acknowledged the strange situation he and Combs are in, he claimed to have been able to make "some friends." He noted that it's an odd setting, like a mix of several other well-known personalities and other former or alleged former gangsters.

Bankman-Fried also praised his fellow prisoners for their proficiency in board games and said:

“They’re good at chess… That’s one thing I’ve learned. Former armed robbers who don’t speak English and probably didn’t graduate middle school, a surprising number of them are very good at chess. I’m not saying they’re Grandmasters. But I lose games to them all the time. I was not expecting that.”

Talking about the prison, Sam then stated,

“It’s sort of dystopian… You know, the fortunate thing, the place I’m in, I’m not in … I’m not in physical danger.”

As per NBC News' March 6 report, Bankman-Fried is now serving a 25-year term for scamming consumers of his defunct bitcoin exchange at the Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center.

In November 2023, Bankman-Fried was found guilty on seven charges of wire fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering for defrauding FTX customers and lenders of Alameda Research. According to the prosecution, Bankman-Fried committed one of the largest financial scams in American history.

On the other hand, Diddy has been accused of transportation to engage in pr*stitution, s*x trafficking, and racketeering. The rap mogul is also facing dozens of lawsuits from people who claimed that he used drugs, alcohol, and physical violence to injure and take advantage of them.

Diddy has refuted every accusation made against him and entered a not guilty plea. His trial will start on May 5, 2025.