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S.B.F.’s Diesel Therapy

The crypto convict is on a cross-country prison bus to California, planning his appeal, and claiming Sullivan & Cromwell bartered away his freedom. Does he have a case?

Sam Bankman-Fried s.b.f.
We’ll likely have to wait until Sam’s appeal to see whether there is anything more to his theory that Sullivan & Cromwell threw him under the bus during its November 9 meeting. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images
William D. Cohan
May 29, 2024

Two weeks after we chatted in person at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, earlier this month, Sam Bankman-Fried was handcuffed to the seat of a prison bus and began his long journey to what will likely be his home for the foreseeable future: the medium-security federal prison in Mendota, California. In the corrections trade, these cross-country bus trips are known as “diesel therapy.” According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Sam is currently at FTC Oklahoma City, which is described as “an administrative federal security transfer center.”