Toughest prison in the Caribbean new home for FTX founder

On Monday (12th), the founder of the insolvent crypto exchange FTX was arrested in the Bahamas. The US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a lawsuit against Sam Bankman-Fried for allegedly embezzling funds from investors.

The former crypto industry prodigy is being held in the Bahamas‘ only prison, notorious for its overcrowding and inhumane conditions. There are no toilets and up to six inmates are huddled in small cells.

Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the entrepreneur who founded cryptocurrency exchange FTX, is unlikely to return to the luxurious US$40 million penthouse he has lived in for the past several years.

Instead, he will now remain in the custody of Bahamian authorities at Fox Hill, the country’s only prison, where he was reportedly transferred after a Magistrates’ Court hearing.

After bail requested by his lawyers was denied, SBF declared in court that he would not waive his right to resist extradition to the United States. As a result, Magistrate Judge Joyann Ferguson Pratt ordered the FTX founder to remain in the Bahamas Correctional Authority to avoid “risk of absconding.”

So while he awaits his extradition hearing, scheduled for February 8, 2023, Bankman-Fried will be living in one of the most overcrowded prisons in the Caribbean.

The World Prison Brief (WPB), the world’s leading database on prison issues, ranks the Bahamas prison as the 11th most overcrowded prison in the region, including Latin American countries.

Fox Hill is an overcrowded facility with an occupancy rate of 161.77%. In fact, it’s so crowded that inmates sometimes only see the sunlight for 30 minutes a week, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Bankman-Fried is apparently already being held at Fox Hill, where he is said to have gone straight to the medical unit, a local official said. It’s unclear which part of the prison the former FTX chief executive will be housed in, as the facility theoretically has a detention area for those serving short sentences, separate from those convicted of a crime.

A human rights report published in 2021 drew attention to the internal conditions in the prison. The document mentions plagues of rats, maggots and insects in the individual cells, which are no larger than three meters and each accommodate up to six inmates.

There are no toilets at the prison where the former FTX boss is being held in the Bahamas, so prisoners have to relieve themselves in buckets.

It is also unclear whether SBF will be able to maintain his vegan diet or whether he will be allowed to wear the patches he wears to treat his depression or attention deficit disorder during his incarceration in the Bahamian prison.

Fox Hill Prison is also notorious for poor nutrition, poor sanitation and inadequate medical care for inmates.

With information form latinapress

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