Plenty of celebrities have gone to prison and made lasting friendships on the inside, but only a handful share the experience with other famous people.
Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino — who spent eight months in New York’s FCI Otisville — connected with not one but two big names while he was serving time for tax evasion. One of those was Michael Cohen, the ex-lawyer who once worked for former president Donald Trump.
According to Sorrentino, he and Cohen met shortly after Cohen arrived at FCI Otisville in May 2019. After hearing that Cohen didn’t eat chicken, Sorrentino asked Cohen if he would give him his uneaten serving so he could have an extra helping after his workouts.
“He’s like, ‘No problem. No problem,’” Sorrentino claimed in a 2020 episode of Jersey Shore: Family Vacation. “Thursday comes around, which is chicken day. Cohen is nowhere to be found. And I’m like, ‘Damn. Cohen was chicken on chicken day!’ I saw him a couple hours later, and I was like, ‘Yo, man, what happened?’ He’s like, ‘Yo, man, they know we’re trying to smuggle chicken!’”
When asked about the alleged poultry smuggling operation, however, a rep for Cohen told Page Six that Sorrentino’s story was “red sauce self-promotional fiction.”
Keep scrolling for a look back at other famous celebrity prison connections through history:
Jen Shah and Elizabeth Holmes
The former Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star reportedly bonded with the disgraced Theranos founder when they both found themselves serving time in Texas’ FCI Bryan. Shah was convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in July 2022, while Holmes was convicted on three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in January 2022.
“They’re friends. They’re both rehabilitating and have bonded over being on this journey of positive change,” Shah’s rep, Chris Giovanni, told People in September 2023. “Their situations brought them together, and they have a good understanding of one another. They’re getting through it together.”
Giovanni added that Shah has taken a motherly role toward Holmes, who is 10 years her junior. “Jen gets all the ladies together and they rally behind her while she teaches them fitness moves, and Elizabeth has been there right along with them,” he said, claiming that Holmes regularly attends Shah’s “Shah-mazing Abs” workout classes.
Mike ‘The Situation’ Sorrentino and Billy McFarland
Before meeting Cohen, Sorrentino befriended Fyre Festival cofounder Billy McFarland, who was sentenced to six years in prison in 2018 after pleading guilty to two counts of wire fraud. In April 2019, Vinny Guadagnino and Paul “DJ Pauly D” DelVecchio claimed Sorrentino told them he played Scrabble with McFarland, who was released in March 2022.
Mike ‘The Situation’ Sorrentino and Michael Cohen
After his release, Sorrentino claimed he tried to set up a chicken smuggling ring with Cohen, who was convicted of tax evasion, campaign finance violations and making false statements to a federally insured bank in 2018. Cohen, however, denied that he ever had any involvement in Sorrentino’s plans to score extra helpings in the cafeteria. Cohen was released in July 2020.
Todd Chrisley and Rick Singer
The former Chrisley Knows Best star isn’t exactly friends with the man behind the college admissions scandal, but at the very least they know each other. According to Savannah Chrisley, Singer told Todd he’s working on a book — and Todd offered him some advice. “Dad was like, ‘Make sure you don’t leave out the chapter where you snitched on everyone,’” Savannah said during a September 2023 appearance on Nick Viall’s “The Viall Files” podcast. “He’s like the president of this place.”
Todd and Singer are both incarcerated at Florida’s FPC Pensacola. Todd and wife Julie Chrisley were convicted of bank fraud and tax evasion in 2022, while Singer was convicted of racketeering conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy,conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government and obstruction of justice.
Ja Rule and Alan Hevesi
While the rapper was serving time for gun possession and tax evasion, he connected with Hevesi, a former New York comptroller who pleaded guilty to a corruption charge in 2010. Ja also connected with Dennis Kozlowski, the former Tyco International CEO who in 2005 was convicted of grand larceny, falsifying business records, securities fraud and conspiracy. In 2012, Ja told the New York Daily News that the two men — whom he called Hevey D and Koz — gave him stock advice and watched TV with him. “Outside, you don’t meet guys like this every day,” he said. “This place is amazing.”
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs and Luigi Mangione
There’s no evidence that these two have met, but in December 2024, Mangione — who has been charged with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson — was remanded to custody at MDC Brooklyn, the same detention center where Diddy has been held since his September 2024 arrest on racketeering and sex trafficking charges. (Diddy has pleaded not guilty to all charges and maintained his innocence.)
MDC Brooklyn is also the current home of Sam Bankman-Fried, the former FTX crypto mogul who was convicted of fraud in November 2023. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison in March 2024 but has remained incarcerated at MDC Brooklyn while he appeals his case.
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