It wasn't long ago that Sean "Diddy" Combs—whose landmark debut album is titled No Way Out—and Sam Bankman-Fried were at the top of their respective worlds: Combs, one of the most successful rappers and producers of his era, and Bankman-Fried a multi-billionaire founder of the crypto exchange FTX. Both of their lives, though, took a dark turn, and now the two disgraced celebrities have something else in common: a shared prison dormitory in a notorious Brooklyn detention center, according to a source familiar who spoke with Fortune on the condition of anonymity. The New York Times and NBC first reported the news.
Sam Bankman-Fried has been an inmate at the Metropolitan Detention Center since August 2023, when a federal judge revoked his bail after he leaked diary entries from his former employee and one-time girlfriend Caroline Ellison to the New York Times. Bankman-Fried faced trial for the collapse of FTX, which at one time was valued at over $30 billion.
Bankman-Fried's time at the prison has been tumultuous, with his lawyers fighting for his release during his trial, arguing that he did not have proper access to laptops in order to prepare his defense. They also said that Bankman-Fried, a vegan, was subsisting on bread, water, and occasionally peanut butter. The judge repeatedly denied the request.
Human rights advocates and lawyers have long criticized conditions at MDC, which is used to house detainees awaiting federal trials in New York City, including well-known inmates such as the former president of Honduras, whose lawyers described his detention as being like a "prisoner of war."
Independent watchdogs have largely agreed, with a federal agency investigating a weeklong power outage in 2019 that left more than 1,600 inmates in freezing temperatures and without the ability to speak with their lawyers. Another group, American Oversight, shared public records highlighting excessive force, delays in medical care, and sanitation issues.
Despite the harsh environment, Bankman-Fried elected to stay at MDC following his guilty conviction in November 2023, arguing that he would be closer to his attorneys as he prepared for his appeal.
Diddy joins G Lock and 'gangster' Bankman-Fried
Combs is a more recent inmate after authorities arrested him last week for sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, and transportation to engage in prostitution. He pleaded not guilty, but a judge ordered him to be sent to the detention center without being released on bond.
According to the source familiar, Combs and Bankman-Fried are both being held in an area of MDC that is designed for detainees who require special protection, such as high-profile inmates and cooperators, including former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández. The source described the unit as self-contained and said it was about the size of a basketball court with bunk beds, holding around 20 inmates. It still considered to be general population, though it comes with added protection. Inmates housed in the unit do not go to other public spaces such as the cafeteria, according to the source.
A spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Prisons told NBC, "For privacy, safety, and security reasons the (FBOP) does not provide information about conditions of confinement, including housing assignments or internal security practices for any particular incarcerated individual."
It is unclear how long Bankman-Fried has been housed in the unit, and a spokesperson for the FTX founder did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Influencer Tiffany Fong shared the first image of Bankman-Fried at MDC last February, showing the former billionaire standing next to four other inmates and wearing a baggy shirt and gym shorts.
One of his dormmates, a former member of the Bloods gang who goes by the name G Lock, told Fong that Bankman-Fried wasn't showering often and had become "skinny like a toothpick," adding that "Sam is a gangster."
