The S.B.F. Parent Trap

Joseph Bankman
Joe Bankman said he was “absolutely shocked” when the shit hit the fan for Sam. At the time, he’d been working on “these wonderful charities” for his son. “It was so exciting for me, and I had absolutely no idea that anything was amiss,” he told Brent Cassity. Then the walls closed in rapidly. Photo: Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg/Getty Images
William D. Cohan
October 15, 2025

Join Puck to listen to this article

On November 4, Sam Bankman-Fried’s attorneys will stand before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, in Lower Manhattan, to appeal his 25-year prison sentence for conducting what prosecutors described as one of the largest financial frauds in history. In the meantime, he continues to hang in there as Prisoner 37244-510 at Terminal Island, in San Pedro, California, where he was transferred from Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center following the ill-advised (and unauthorized) jail cell interview he gave to Tucker Carlson in March. (I got my 75 minutes in the clink with Sam, too.) Not much has been heard from Sam since the Bureau of Prisons moved him to Southern California. A so-called “friend” with access to his X account posted “gm” from Sam—“good morning,” that is—on September 23, and yesterday retweeted a post from a friendly FTX creditor. But nothing else since he thanked Tucker for having him on the show.