Pursuits

Blankenship Settles Into ‘Club Fed’ Prison in California

  • Ex-Massey CEO assigned to privately run minimum-security camp
  • Former coal baron must serve year on conspiracy conviction
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Ex-Massey Energy CEO Donald Blankenship began serving a one-year sentence on Thursday for evading mine safety laws at a federal prison dubbed a “club fed” in the foothills of the San Joaquin Valley in California.

Blankenship, 66, reported to the privately run minimum-security prison camp in Taft, California, according to U.S. Bureau of Prisons officials. He turned himself in after a federal appeals court denied his bid to stay free while he seeks to overturn his conspiracy conviction.