Sources confirmed to NBC News that Sean “Diddy” Combs has been transferred to a section of the New York City prison where convicted cryptocurrency fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried is being held.
The area of the detention camp is reserved for prisoners who require special protection, three sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
Combs, 54, was arrested last week and is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, a federal prison notorious for violence and poor care.
Also in this special unit is 32-year-old Bankman-Fried, who the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan said orchestrated one of the largest financial frauds in history, stealing more than $8 billion, the same sources said.
The unit is described as a barracks-like area that houses 18 to 20 inmates who require special protection, the sources said, from high-profile defendants to people cooperating with investigations. It is considered a regular prison, but with additional security.
A spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons said in a statement: “For privacy and security reasons, the FBOP does not provide information about prison conditions, including housing or internal security measures for individual detainees.”
Bankman-Fried was found guilty in November and sentenced to 25 years in federal prison in March.
Prosecutors said he misappropriated billions of dollars of clients’ money invested in his cryptocurrency exchange FTX, and defrauded FTX investors and lenders to another company, Alameda Research.
Bankman-Fried has appealed his conviction, and according to records, in May the court recommended that the Federal Bureau of Prisons hold him at MDC despite the conviction so he could have access to his lawyers.
Combs was detained at the MDC last week after being arrested on a federal court indictment charging him with organized crime conspiracy, sex trafficking and other crimes centering on the sexual abuse of women.
Combs has pleaded not guilty. A federal judge on September 17 ordered him held in custody pending trial.
The MDC on 29th Street in East Brooklyn has a total of 1,616 inmates, according to its website.
