- Rapper Sean Combs and crypto fraudster
Sam Bankman-Fried are sleeping in the same jail dormitory. - Combs, known as
Diddy , has been in theBrooklyn jail since last week onsex trafficking charges.
Sean Combs, the rapper known as Diddy, and Bankman-Fried are bunking in the same dormitory of a Brooklyn jail, said a person familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk publicly about the housing arrangement. Their identity is known to Business Insider.
Combs has been held at
Bankman-Fried has been imprisoned at the same jail since last year. He is serving a 25-year sentence on fraud charges after stealing $8 billion from customers of his FTX crypto exchange. He funneled money into his crypto-trading fund Alameda Research, venture capital investments, political donations, and used it for personal spending.
The pair are among roughly 20 inmates housed in the area, which is reserved for those who need special security, including high-profile defendants, people familiar with the situation told NBC News.
Other high-profile inmates, like disgraced pop singer R. Kelly and sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell —who has ties to Jeffrey Epstein— have previously been held in MDC.
The jail holds around 1,200 detainees, and has a reputation for tough conditions. Last week, Combs's lawyers called it too "horrific" for a defendant pre-trial, and a lawyer for an inmate who died there after a fight this summer once said it is overcrowded and understaffed, calling it "hell on earth."
Combs' lawyers have since changed course, saying he "can't say enough good things about the MDC, which has been responsive to our and his needs," according to comments obtained by the New York Times.
Correction: September 25, 2024 — An earlier version of this story misattributed details about the purpose of the part of the jail where Sam Bankman-Fried and Sean Combs were being held and how many people were being held there. Those details were attributed to unnamed sources in a report from NBC News and did not come from a source who spoke with Business Insider or sources who spoke with The New York Times.
Jacob Shamsian contributed reporting.