Get busy living, or get busy drying.
According to a story, former millionaire Sam Bankman-Fried took showers with a hose and cold water while languishing in a Bahamian prison that the indicted crypto magnate compared to “The Shawshank Redemption.”
Bankman-Fried, who was arrested by law enforcement officers in the Bahamas on December 12th, reported that he was forced to shower in a moldy stall during his brief stay in a 20-square-foot room in the infirmary of the infamous Fox Hill detention facility in Nassau.
“I expected it to be like ‘The Shawshank Redemption,’” Bankman-Fried, 30, told Forbes, referring to the 1994 Academy Award-winning film starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman.
Andy Dufresne, portrayed by Tim Robbins, is taken to a jail where he and other inmates are routinely beaten, raped, and in some cases murdered by fellow inmates and guards, all under the careful eye of a corrupt warden.
However, Bankman-Fried was spared the risks of interacting with the general population in a jail that human rights organizations claim is infested with fleas, mice, and cockroaches. His 10-day detention was shared with five other detainees in the infirmary.
Before being extradited to the United States last month, Bankman-Fried spent around ten days in the infamous Fox Hill detention facility in the Bahamas.
He also got access to the infirmary’s private bathroom, which had a door, but he had to use a bucket of water each time because the toilet wouldn’t flush on its own.
Forbes reports that the few times he showered, he did so beneath a hose with cold water and was forced to dry his hands and face with a 3-by-5-inch towel.
The inventor of FTX told Forbes that his sleeping arrangement was “the worst bed imaginable, made of cardboard and a piece of semi-soft plastic on stilts.”
There were no pillows available, so Bankman-Fried used his court-appearance jacket, which was navy blue and rolled up, to rest his head at night.
According to Forbes, he was fed peanut butter, stale Wonder Bread, and fresh fruit instead of his typical vegan meal.
Unlike Dufresne, however, Bankman-Fried told Forbes that he never felt threatened by the other detainees he shared the infirmary with.
According to Bankman-Fried, the majority of convicts were incarcerated for drug-related offenses. They apparently persuaded him that drug peddling was three times more profitable than working at McDonald’s.
He recalled the anxious minutes leading up to his arrest to Forbes. Bankman-Fried stated he was on the phone with his attorney in New York, who was delivering a message from the FBI.
The bureau informed Bankman-attorney Fried’s that Bahamian authorities were en route to arrest his client. Forbes reports that the federal government informed the former FTX founder that he could either wait for the local police to arrest him or consent to be extradited to the United States under “some sort of bail conditions.”
If Bankman-Fried chose extradition, the FBI would intercept the Bahamian police and arrest him. According to Forbes, he would be hauled away and placed on a private plane destined for the mainland within hours.
Forbes stated that Bankman-Fried wasn’t persuaded that his arrest was imminent, so he had his parents contact top Bahamian government officials to confirm the intelligence.
None of the officials the Bankman-Frieds contacted claimed to be aware of any arrest.
A source close to Bankman-Fried told Forbes, “They have no f–king idea what this is about.”
“They believe it is apocryphal… …and that they believe the United States does not realize they have no power here… If we had intended to arrest you, we would have done so a month ago,” a source told Forbes.
Bankman-Fried asserts that his arrest was part of a “organized pressure campaign” by the United States Department of Justice to have Bahamian officials seize him before he could escape.
DOJ sent a cable to the Bahamian attorney general’s office two days prior to the arrest that stated, “Legally obtained documentary evidence and various witness interviews indicate that Bankman-Fried personally accumulated billions of dollars from his involvement in the criminal conspiracy: therefore, he has the means and may soon have the motive to flee The Bahamas.”
Bankman-Fried stated that he anticipated his incarceration to resemble that described in the 1994 film “The Shawshank Redemption.”
The Post has reached out to Bankman-spokesman Fried’s for comment.
Bankman-Fried first resisted extradition, but ultimately capitulated. He pleaded not guilty to charges of fraud and money laundering before being released on a $250 million bond pending his fall 2018 trial in Lower Manhattan.
Bankman-Fried is currently under house arrest in his parents’ $4 million Palo Alto, California residence. His parents are law professors at Stanford, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried.
He has disputed accusations that he defrauded investors and users of FTX by transferring $1.8 billion from the platform to his hedge fund. If found guilty, he faces up to 115 years in prison.
Forbes reports that Bankman-family Fried’s has hired armed private security guards and purchased a trained German shepherd that can attack with a secret code word.