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Sean Combs, the famed rapper charged and held for racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and the sexual abuse of women, is being held in the same jail unit as disgraced crypto giant Sam Bankman Fried whose FTX empire was based in the Bahamas.

Both men are living in a Brooklyn unit at the Metropolitan Detention Center, sleeping in a dormitory-style room with a group of other defendants assigned to the same section, a person familiar with the living arrangements told NBC.

Combs has pleaded not guilty, but a federal judge on Sept. 17 denied bail and ordered that he be held until his trial, concerned that he would tamper with witnesses.

The unit where Combs and Bankman-Fried live is described as a barracks-style area that houses 18 to 20 inmates. This group –from high-profile defendants to people who cooperate with investigators–require special protection.

Bankman-Fried, 32, was extradited from the Bahamas to New York and was sentenced for stealing $8 billion in a financial scheme, described as one of the largest financial frauds in history. He is appealing his sentence.

A spokeswoman for the Bureau of Prisons said the agency “does not provide information about conditions of confinement, including housing assignments or internal security practices for any particular incarcerated individual.”

From the onset, Combs’s lawyers argued that the conditions at M.D.C. were too “horrific” for a defendant awaiting trial.

Metropolitan Detention Center has a history of problems and is described as “an overcrowded, understaffed and neglected federal jail that is hell on earth” with almost 1,200 inmates.

US Prosecutors hit disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried with new criminal charges–bribing Chinese government officials with $40 million.

This is the 13th charge added to a growing list of charges against Bankman-Fried since the collapse of his billion-dollar crypto empire.

The newly unsealed indictment alleged that Bankman-Fried conspired to pay off “one or more” Chinese officials to grant him access to his frozen accounts which contained more than $ 1 billion in cryptocurrency in 2021.

Unsealed documents say, “After confirmation that the accounts were unfrozen, Bankman-Fried authorized the transfer of additional tens of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency to complete the bribe.”

This is a violation of the US anti-bribery law. He will be arraigned on the new indictment on Thursday before U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan federal court.

He intends to plead not guilty, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Before the alleged bribery, Bankman-Fried tried other methods to unfreeze the funds–hiring lawyers to advocate for him in China and opening accounts on Chinese exchanges with the use of the personal information of several unnamed people who were reportedly not affiliated with FTX or Alameda Research, according to documents.

Bankman-Fried remains on a $250 million bond under house arrest at his parents’ house in California, and has pleaded not guilty to eight counts of fraud and conspiracy as over one million clients grieve the loss of billions of dollars when he allegedly funneled money from FTX to Alameda Research, his hedge fund.

The 31-year-old lived in the Bahamas where FTX, the 32 billion dollar company was headquartered and it is believed his exchange was “a scheme to defraud customers by misappropriating those customers’ deposits and using those deposits to pay expenses and debts of Alameda Research.”

When China began to scrutinize the cryptocurrency in 2021, Bankman-Fried moved his company’s headquarters from Hong Kong, China to the Bahamas where it was registered by the Securities Commission of the Bahamas and operated under the name FTX Digital Markets.

He said at the time, “The Bahamas is one of the few places to set up a comprehensive framework for crypto,” adding that it“has emerged from COVID lively, safe, and without quarantine.”

Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried could face an additional 40 years in a US prison after prosecutors hit him with four more charges in documents unsealed on Thursday.

The additonal charges include conspiracy to commit bank fraud and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transfer business and demands for the forfeiture of assets which include assets held in Binance accounts, $170 million in cash held at Silvergate Bank and more than 55 million shares held in a commission free investing app Robinhood Markets.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, said in new statements since the new indictments, “We are hard at work and will remain so until justice is done.”

The indictments also claim that Bankman-Fried, and his co-conspirators–Gary Wang and Caroline Ellison– “made over 300 political contributions, totaling tens of millions of dollars, that were unlawful because they were made in the name of a straw donor or paid for with corporate funds.”

“To avoid certain contributions being publicly reported in his name, Bankman-Fried conspired to and did have certain political contributions made in the names of two other FTX executives,” the new filing claims.

Other claims in documents stated that Bankman-Fried created a bogus company called North Dimension, “which had no employees or business operations,” to open a bank account for trading purposes after rejections from another bank. He also created a website for the fake company using monies from his credit card, prosecutors say.

Since being extradicted to the US from the Bahamas where FTX was headquartered, Bankman-Fried remains under house arrest at his parents’ home in California. He has pleaded not guilty to the eight previous charges against him.

Photo credit: Reuters

US Senate Banking Committee says it will subpoena FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried to testify on his former company’s failings on December 14, if he does not come voluntarily.

Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), in a public letter, said the former crypto billionaire must appear in person to “answer for the failure of both entities (FTX and Alameda Research) that was caused, at least in part, by the clear misuse of client funds and wiped out billions of dollars owed to over a million creditors.”

Bankman-Fried was CEO when the third biggest crypto exchange collapsed and he filed bankruptcy, losing billions of dollars in customer funds on the platform. He has denied any misappropriation of funds and has said it was simply an accounting mistake.

“There are still significant unanswered questions about how client funds were misappropriated, how clients were blocked from withdrawing their own money, and how you orchestrated a cover-up,” Brown said in the letter.

The 30-year-old will be forced to the hearing in Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room G50, at 10:00 a.m.

“If you chose not to appear, I am prepared, along with Ranking Member Pat Toomey, to issue a subpoena to compel your testimony.”

The tone of this request is somewhat different from the friendly tweet Congresswoman Maxine Waters posted on Twitter when she invited him to testify before the Finance Committee which she chairs: “We appreciate that you’ve been candid in your discussions about what happened at FTX. Your willingness to talk to the public will help the company’s customers, investors and others. To that end, we would welcome your participation in our hearing on the 13th.”

Investigations appear to be ramping up as the US and the Bahamas investigators report that they are probing Bankman-Fried’s dealings in his former company.

Featured Image: Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Sam Bankman-Fried

Disgraced crypto darling Sam Bankman-Fried made his first appearance since the collapse of his billion-dollar empire, choosing to speak on FTX’s meltdown despite lawyers’ advice to keep quiet.

“It’s not who I am. I have a duty to talk and explain what happened. To do what’s right,” he said at the New York Times Dealbook Summit on Wednesday afternoon.

In a video interview from the Bahamas, Bankman-Fried, known for his incessant tweeting asked journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin, “What good is it if I stay quiet?”

At times Bankman-Fried fidgeted during the interview as he pondered whether or not he could be held liable for the purported mishandling of customer funds.

“There’s a time and a place for me to think about myself and my own future. I don’t think this is it,” he said.

“Customers and stake holders matter most.”

The 30-year-old, who is no longer the CEO of the exchange since filing bankruptcy, said he believes customers can still recoup millions of dollars lost in the collapse.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen but I want to be helpful to regulators wherever I can. I can’t promise anyone anything. I think there’s a chance customers will be made a lot more whole if there’s more effort.”

Bankman said he too has lost all of his investments in FTX and only has approximately $100,000 left on his bank account. “I don’t have hidden funds…I put everything in FTX.”

He rejected the notion that he committed fraud. “I did not try to commit fraud on anyone.”

FTX, once valued at 32 billion dollars was a giant in the crypto market and was headquartered in the Bahamas. Its new CEO is now John Ray III who is at odds with Bankman-Fried and revealed the corporate failings and his use of funds for personal needs like purchasing lux properties in the Bahamas.

“Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here,” Ray said in a court filing.

After the  downfall of the third biggest crypto exchange, he tweeted, “I f-ked up.”

“I screwed. I was the CEO. We messed up,” he told Sorkin again.

Bankman-Fried will make an appearance on Capitol Hill later in the month, to answer questions on the billions of dollars lost in the disaster.

Photo credit: Getty