Sam Bankman-Fried Upset After Jail Refuses To Accommodate Vegan Diet, ADHD Meds: Report

Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried reportedly needs Adderall, vegan-friendly food, and proper computer access to focus on his upcoming trial after he pleaded not guilty to multiple charges stemming from the collapse of his cryptocurrency empire.

Attorneys for Bankman-Fried voiced the complaints during a Manhattan federal court hearing on Tuesday, claiming the Metropolitan Detention Center hasn’t given him medication for his ADHD and the jailed man has only survived on water and bread alone — sometimes with peanut butter.

“Your Honor, that’s outrageous and needs to be remedied,” Attorney Mark Cohen told a Manhattan federal judge, according to The Associated Press.

Cohen said his client was “being denied medication to focus” for his upcoming trial on October 3.

Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn reportedly said she would look into accommodating Bankman-Fried’s dietary restrictions and medical needs at the detention center.

“I’m reasonably confident they provide vegetarian options,” Netburn said. “A vegan diet may not be available, but I assume a vegetarian is.”

Attorney Christian Everdell reportedly told the judge, in addition to Bankman-Fried’s living conditions, that his client was also being denied the right “to effectively prepare for his defense” with getting only two days per week to review millions of pages of evidence.

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Bankman-Fried’s FTX digital asset exchange collapsed earlier this year and filed for bankruptcy after users learned that the company was intertwined with sister firm Alameda Research. Both were controlled by Bankman-Fried and other young business leaders working from a luxury penthouse in the Bahamas.

He pleaded not guilty in January to eight charges, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He was hit with four additional charges the next month, including conspiracy to commit bank fraud and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transfer business.

The fallen crypto prodigy was also accused last week of using over a hundred million stolen dollars to conduct “a wide-ranging political influence operation,” according to a court filing from federal prosecutors.

Bankman-Fried donated nearly $40 million primarily to Democratic nominees and political action committees before the 2022 midterm elections. He was also the second-largest donor to the 2020 Biden presidential campaign and was granted four meetings at the White House with senior advisers in the months before his companies filed for bankruptcy.

The new court filing comes after Bankman-Fried was jailed earlier this month after a judge revoked his bail for allegedly tampering with witnesses on at least two occasions. He had been living with his parents after being placed under house arrest, but prosecutors said that he jeopardized his upcoming trial by leaking writings and love letters from his ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison to a New York Times reporter.

Leif Le Mahieu and Zach Jewell contributed to this report.

Medical Examiner Makes Ruling In Death Of Obama’s Personal Chef

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of Massachusetts ruled this week that the drowning death of the Obama family’s personal chef was an accident.

Tafari Campbell, 45, worked as a sous chef for Barack and Michelle Obama and was visiting Martha’s Vineyard from Dumfries, Virginia, at the time of his passing, authorities said.

Timothy McGuirk, a spokesman for the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, told The Washington Post that the chief medical examiner ruled Campbell’s death an accident on Tuesday. He added that the office does not release autopsy reports to the public.

Campbell allegedly was “standing on his paddleboard when he lost his balance and fell off” into the Edgartown Great Pond, the Boston Globe reported at the time of the incident in late July. “He struggled to remain afloat before slipping beneath the water. Campbell was not wearing a life jacket and wasn’t secured to his board. Campbell’s body was found in about 8 feet of water.”

Police said at the time, “A male paddle boarder who had gone into the water appeared to briefly struggle to stay on the surface, and then submerged and did not resurface. … Another paddle boarder was on the pond with him at the time and observed him go under the water.”

After several state and local emergency personnel, including the U.S. Coast Guard, arrived on the scene, Massachusetts State Police divers recovered Campbell’s body approximately 100 feet from the shore shortly before 10 a.m. Authorities said they located Campbell’s body using a boat with an attached side-scan sonar system and aerial support from MSP and U.S. Coast Guard helicopter crews.

“President and Mrs. Obama were not present at the residence at the time of the accident,” Massachusetts State Police said.

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The Obama family said they are “grieving the loss of a truly wonderful man.”

“Tafari was a beloved part of our family,” the family said. “When we first met him, he was a talented sous chef at the White House — creative and passionate about food, and its ability to bring people together. In the years that followed, we got to know him as a warm, fun, extraordinarily kind person who made all of our lives a little brighter.”

“That’s why, when we were getting ready to leave the White House, we asked Tafari to stay with us, and he generously agreed. He’s been part of our lives ever since, and our hearts are broken that he’s gone,” the statement continued. “Today we join everyone who knew and loved Tafari — especially his wife Sherise and their twin boys, Xavier and Savin — in grieving the loss of a truly wonderful man.”

Brandon Drey contributed to this report.

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