R. Kelly, Tiger King, the Unabomber. These infamous inmates have spent time in NC prison

Butner’s federal prison facilities have long been home to some of America’s most notorious white-collar criminals, including fraudsters, computer hackers, drug lords and murderers.

Its newest high-profile inmate? The disgraced R&B singer R. Kelly.

The 56-year-old recording artist, whose legal name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, is being held in Federal Correctional Institution Butner Medium I, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. He was moved to Butner to serve a prison sentence for sexual exploitation of children and other offenses, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. His release date is “unknown” on the prison bureau’s database, but Kelly would be in his late 80s by the time he finishes his sentences.

He’s not the only high-profile inmate at Butner.

Bernie Madoff, one of the most notorious Ponzi schemers in history, died at the medical center in 2021 at the age of 82.

In 2021, Theodore “Ted” Kaczynski, known as the “Unabomber,” was transferred to Butner from Colorado, according to The Washington Post.

The Butner federal correctional institutions, which include medium- and low-security facilities for male inmates and a federal medical center, are located about 15 miles north of downtown Durham.

Here’s a look at some of the high-profile prisoners who have passed through Butner.

R. Kelly

Kelly was sentenced in June 2022 in a New York federal court to serve 30 years in prison for sexual exploitation of children, among other crimes. In February, a federal judge in Chicago sentenced Kelly to serve 20 years in prison for child pornography charges with one year to run consecutive to the 30-year sentence.

He was convicted in 2021 after a six-week trial on charges of “racketeering predicated on criminal conduct including sexual exploitation of children, forced labor and Mann Act violations involving the coercion and transportation of women and girls in interstate commerce to engage in illegal sexual activity,” according to the federal U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

He was moved to Butner from an Illinois federal prison on April 19, The News & Observer reported.

Kelly has denied any wrongdoing and plans to appeal his conviction, media outlets reported.

Joseph Maldonado-Passage

Maldonado-Passage, known as “Joe Exotic,” starred in the 2020 Netflix documentary series “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness.” A federal jury found him guilty in 2019 on two counts of hiring someone to murder a woman in Florida, along with multiple counts of falsifying wildlife records and violating the Endangered Species Act.

He moved to the Butner Federal Medical Center in 2021 for cancer treatment. The 60-year-old has since moved to a federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas, and is set to be released in 2035, prison records show.

Theodore “Ted” Kaczynski

Kaczynski is serving multiple life-in-prison sentences after killed three people in mail bombings, and injuring others. He pleaded guilty to the crimes in 1998 in a deal that allowed him to avoid the death penalty.

At the time he moved to Butner’s medical facility, a federal prison spokeswoman declined to provide details about his medical condition or why he was being transferred, The Washington Post reported.

He is now 80 years old.

Bernie Madoff

After Madoff swindled investors out of billions of dollars, he was sentenced in 2009 to 150 years in prison on securities fraud and other charges. He pleaded guilty to cheating as many as 37,000 people out of billions of dollars over the course of four decades, McClatchy News previously reported.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, his lawyers asked a judge for compassionate release from prison as Madoff was suffering from “chronic kidney failure” and only had a year or so to live. While the prison had major COVID-19 outbreaks, the judge denied the request.

Samuel Israel III

The former hedge fund manager was sentenced to 22 years in prison for running a $450 million fraud from 1996 to 2005, according to Reuters. Israel, 63, is housed in Butner’s low security prison and is scheduled for release in May 2026, according to prison records.

Al Parish

The former Charleston Southern University economist was convicted for running a Ponzi investment scheme. He was sentenced to 24 years behind bars in 2008 and ordered to forfeit $63 million, news station WCVI reported.

He was granted a compassionate release in March 2021, having served 13 years of his term. A judge allowed him to be released due to his chronic health conditions that could make COVID-19 dangerous for him, WCSC reported. He was ordered to be on probation for three years and owed millions of dollars to his victims, ABCNews4 reported.

Roman Velerevich Seleznev

The Russian computer hacker was sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2017 for his involvement in a $50 million cyberfraud ring and for defrauding banks of $9 million through a hacking scheme, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

He is 38 and ie expected to be released from prison in July 2036, according to prison records.

Gilberto Rodriguez-Orejuela

Rodriguez-Orejuela was called “one of the world’s most infamous drug lords,” by the Miami Herald and ran a family drug cartel in Colombia that trafficked roughly 200 tons of cocaine to the U.S. He died at 83 in Butner’s medical facility in 2022, according to Colombian newspaper El Tiempo.

Hayley Fowler contributed to this report.