An ex-cop in jail with Sam Bankman-Fried says he's eating 'disgusting-looking beans and week-old brown lettuce' because of his veganism

• Sam Bankman-Fried is still sticking to his vegan diet in prison, says a fellow inmate.
• Carmine Simpson said Bankman-Fried is eating "disgusting-looking beans and week-old brown lettuce."
• Simpson was once an NYPD officer. He's now in jail and faces child pornography charges.

Sam Bankman-Fried is maintaining his vegan diet in jail, but it's not going very well.

Carmine Simpson, an ex-NYPD officer behind bars with Bankman-Fried, wrote a letter to US District Judge Lewis Kaplan where he pleaded for leniency on Bankman-Fried's behalf. Kaplan is set to sentence Bankman-Fried on March 28, months after the FTX founder was found guilty of seven counts of fraud and conspiracy in November.

"Even though twelve out of every fourteen of Sam's weekly meals are just undercooked rice, a scoop of disgusting-looking beans and week-old brown lettuce, Sam has stayed true to his commitment to not participate in the maltreatment of animals," Simpson said in his letter.

Simpson said he was initially skeptical of Bankman-Fried's motivations but changed his mind after spending time with him.

"When he first told me that the main reason he worked so hard at becoming a successful and wealthy person was to donate all his money away to noble causes and those in need, quite frankly, I thought that he was blowing smoke up my ass," Simpson wrote.

"Though very quickly, I came to the conclusion that Sam is the most selfless person that I have ever had the privilege to meet," he continued, adding that the "world will be much better off if Sam Bankman-Fried was out of jail."

This wouldn't be the first time Bankman-Fried has struggled with sticking to a vegan diet while in prison. The FTX founder said he subsisted on peanut butter when he was held in a Bahamian jail in 2022.

Simpson added that he predicted the judge will not take his letter seriously, since he is also facing criminal charges.

Simpson was charged with the production of child pornography in January 2021. The former cop is accused of posing as a 17-year-old on social media to solicit sexually explicit photos from minors.

On Tuesday, Bankman-Fried's attorney, Marc Mukasey, said that sentencing his client to a 100-year prison term would be "grotesque" and "barbaric." Bankman-Fried's legal team is asking for a sentence of 6.5 years.

Simpson isn't the only person asking for a lighter sentence for the disgraced businessman. Bankman-Fried's parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, also wrote letters to Kaplan.

"His father and I face the very real possibility that we will not live long enough to see him freed. There are no words for the grief we feel," Barbara Fried wrote in her letter.

Last week, crypto influencer Tiffany Fong posted what she said was the first photo of Bankman-Fried in prison. In Fong's photo, Bankman-Fried looked scruffy and dishevelled.

"He's obviously lost some weight, and I've heard that he's not showering very much. He's not as clean-shaven as he used to be," Fong said in an X video post on February 19.

Representatives for Bankman-Fried did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.