SINGAPORE, Jan 26 — Zhu Su, one of the co-founders of the now-defunct cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, has described his time in Singapore prison as “really enjoyable” after his release last month.
Zhu, who was sentenced to four month’s prison, talked extensively about his jail stint in an upcoming podcast featuring himself and fellow co-founder Kyle Livingston Davies.
Some promotional excerpts for the podcast surfaced on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday (Jan 22).
In one of the clips, the 36-year-old boldly stated: “Obviously, no one wants to go to prison but I think that it’s actually a really enjoyable experience overall.
“Not to the point of, like, highly recommending it per se,” he said. “But I would say that it’s something that if everyone got to experience once, I think it’s definitely good for you.”
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Elaborating further on how he benefited from time in the slammer, Zhu said that he was able to catch up on his reading, do plenty of exercise and was fed well with three daily meals and servings of fruits in between.
“And then the sleep is amazing,” Zhu continued, “because they’ll turn the light off at 9.30pm and the light comes back on at 5.30am. But because you have no internet time, you have no alcohol, no caffeine (or) whatever, you’re just going to fall asleep immediately.”
The entrepreneur goes on to claim that he had the “best sleep” of his life in prison, adding that sleeping on the hard floor helped decompress his spine and made him feel “kinship” with his ancestors.
“This is actually how I was supposed to live,” he said.
Speaking on his relationship with his cell mates, Zhu said that he learned to empathise with them after learning about their experiences in life.
He also said that he got “some of the best advice in prison” because his peers treated him as a “normal” person.
The promotional clips of Zhu’s podcast interview have garnered more than 156,000 views on X as of Friday afternoon.
His statements have also generated online buzz in several countries, including Singapore, China and the United States, getting more than 220 mentions and 13,400 engagements, based on data from social media monitoring tool Digimind.
Most viewers on X did not seem to believe that prison life for Zhu was as easy as he made it seem.
One X user commented: “Turning a negative experience into a positive one is a very powerful skill to have but let’s not kid ourselves, Zhu.”
Another user wrote: “The only reason he said that is because he (was) in a Singapore prison. Try a Third World prison next time, I doubt he will say the same.”
A handful of viewers, however, agreed with Zhu’s point of view.
One said: “When (the Covid-19 pandemic) started, I was trapped in a hostel in South America for a few weeks. It was kind of a similar experience. The loss of options brings liberation, as it confronts you with the basics. Makes you more focused.”
Released for good behaviour
Following his arrest in September last year for not cooperating with investigations into Three Arrows Capital, Zhu was sentenced to four months’ prison under a committal order granted by the Singapore courts.
A similar committal order was granted against Three Arrows Capital’s other co-founder Kyle Davies, but his whereabouts remain unknown.
A committal order is a mandate for a person involved in a lawsuit to comply with orders made against them within a specified timeframe. Failure to do so may result in the litigant being jailed for contempt of court.
Zhu was apprehended at Changi Airport while trying to travel out of the country.
The Singapore citizen, however, was reportedly released early on Dec 20 last year based on standard provisions for good behaviour.
Three Arrows Capital was one of the first high-profile cryptocurrency firms to collapse in 2022, filing for bankruptcy after being hit by a sharp sell-off in crypto markets.
The company’s liquidators Teneo have accused Zhu and Davies of failing to cooperate with their investigation and are seeking to recover US$1.3 billion (S$1.7 billion) from the two men.
Teneo estimated that creditors are owed about US$3.3 billion (S$4.4 billion) in total.
Zhu and Davies were also issued nine-year prohibition orders by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) last year, which will prohibit the duo from performing any regulated activity and from taking part in the management of, acting as a director of or becoming a substantial shareholder of any capital market services firm under the Securities and Futures Act.
Other public figures who spoke about prison life
Zhu is not the first high-profile individual in Singapore to speak publicly about his experiences in jail.
In November 2022, online personality Titus Low released a series of TikTok videos, as well as a 14-minute YouTube video to give his followers the lowdown on life behind bars.
Low talked about a wide variety of topics ranging from prison conditions to the food, his mental health as well as exchanging love letters with his now ex-wife Cheryl Chin.
He was sentenced to three weeks’ jail in October 2022 for breaching a police order and fined S$3,000 for transmitting obscene material.
Dee Kosh, a former radio deejay and YouTuber here, similarly published a 51-minute-long tell-all video on video platform Rumble where he spoke in detail about his court case.
He was jailed for 32 weeks, or about eight months, in August 2022 for sex-related offences, including offering money to underage males in exchange for sex acts.
In February 2022, news channel CNA released Inside Maximum Security, a groundbreaking four-part documentary that looked into the lives of five hardened criminals serving time in Changi Prison.
The breakout series topped YouTube’s list of trending videos in the country and went on to clinch international accolades including Gold at the World Media Festivals Television & Corporate Media Awards that same year. — TODAY
