Meet the Crypto Prison Consultant

From the Mt. Gox debacle to Bitcoin Pizza Day, from the revolutionary introduction of smart contracts to the collapse of FTX, the crypto world has experienced monumental events in the 15 years since Satoshi Nakamoto unveiled the Bitcoin white paper. And now, in what is a profound sign of the times, we have another: the rise of Sam Mangel, a prison consultant who helps those in the crypto ecosystem who are facing the prospect of federal incarceration.

Sam Mangel has become a crypto media darling in recent weeks, popping up on the Bad Crypto podcast, in Hacker Noon, and on BlockHash to discuss what life behind bars will be like for former FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao.

Mangel knows a thing or two about the subject: he spent about two years in a Miami federal prison camp after being found guilty of insurance fraud violations. According to Mangel’s website, he was sentenced to sixty months and was fully prepared to serve the bulk of that time before he learned that he could take steps to mitigate his sentence while he was away.

Those steps allowed him to return to his family in a fraction of the time, and helped him build a playbook he now shares with well-known former business leaders, medical professionals, foreign nationals, and politicians who are preparing for federal incarceration.

With the expertise of Sam Mangel, those former professionals who find themselves in federal prison are provided the pathway to shortening their time in prison by up to 75%.

And in the last few months, in a bit of an ironic twist for a person who describes himself as “not a crypto person,” Mangel has added former crypto industry leaders to his client list.

It’s an area of growth that came natural for Mangel’s white collar consulting practice as crypto-related charges and convictions have spiked since 2022. In just over two years, the United States Department of Justice reached criminal convictions related to Silk Road, BitConnect, OneCoin, HyperFund, Binance, and FTX, among others.

As many of those convicted are high-profile names and foreign nationals, the need for a federal prison consultant is clear, as those individuals have many special considerations that can complicate one’s stay in a Bureau of Prisons facility.

It’s this unfortunate truth that brought Sam Mangel to the Bad Crypto podcast, where host Joel Comm began “we will not be talking crypto at all today.” Instead, Mangel spent nearly an hour working through the situation former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao faces as well as what daily life will be like for former FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.

As the recipient of a 25-year sentence, Bankman-Fried will not be eligible to call a minimum-security prison camp home for several years, as most white collar offenders do. Instead, he’ll find himself in a substantially more challenging environment, a low-security facility that closely resembles the prisons most seen in television and movies, many with closed cells and restricted movement.

That’s a challenging environment for anyone but especially those like Bankman-Fried who are used to unfettered access to the world. As Bad Crypto host Joel pointed out, accepting the narrowing of his access to the world is a fundamental shift SBF is faced with, and the former founder will need to “re-arrange how (he) thinks so he can survive.”

Reading and learning will no doubt be a critical component of Bankman-Fried passing time, as it is for many of those incarcerated. But as Mangel shared on the BlockHash podcast, Bankman-Fried may find another way to occupy his time: by teaching others.

Mangel shared that many of the white collar criminals he served with would share their previous experiences by teaching institution-sponsored classes in entrepreneurship, business law, and real estate.

SBF’s knowledge of crypto and blockchain would mean he may become one of the most popular professors on campus.

This is not only because of his high-profile or the natural curiosity many have about crypto. Interest in cryptocurrency by the incarcerated holds a far more practical purpose: because the traditional banking system often closes its doors to white collar offenders and cryptocurrency may be a central part of one’s post-incarceration financial life.

Helping others as an educator could serve as a crucial rehabilitation tool for both him and his fellow inmates. As Mangel pointed out, classes that engage the incarcerated in teaching and learning not only help pass the time but help individuals find a purpose, which is key to success after prison.

This is the focus of Mangel’s practice: helping people both spend less time in prison and also leverage that time so they can be their very best upon their return. With Chainalysis reporting more than $63 billion in crypto-fraud in 2022 and 2023, that work is unlikely to slow down any time soon.

Karen Janowitz, California Business Journal