Sam Bankman-Fried Discovers New, Powerful Currency in Jail: Mackerel
HAIRCUT 100
“Mackerel has replaced cigarettes as a favored federal jailhouse currency after officials banned smoking,” the Wall Street Journal said—it’s how Bankman-Fried paid for a haircut.
Sam Bankman-Fried, convicted of seven counts of fraud and conspiracy in the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has discovered that, when it comes to a powerful currency in jail, crypto is no match for fish. The Wall Street Journal reports that Bankman-Fried, incarcerated at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center while he awaits his sentencing next year, has traded pouches of “macks” to a fellow inmate for a haircut, according to a source. “Mackerel has replaced cigarettes as a favored federal jailhouse currency after officials banned smoking, and inmates sometimes use pouches of the preserved fish purchased in a commissary to pay for services from one another,” the paper said. Former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández, awaiting trial on federal drug-trafficking and firearms charges, is also resident at the unit. Bankman-Fried’s sentencing is set for March 28, 2024. He faces up to 110 years in prison.
