(Reuters) - Federal officials began the process to transfer Sam Bankman-Fried to a new prison, overriding his wish to stay in New York while helping to prepare his appeal, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing a spokesman for the jailed FTX founder.

Bankman-Fried was earlier this year sentenced to 25 years in prison by a judge for stealing $8 billion from customers of the now-bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange he founded.

A jury found him guilty in November on seven fraud and conspiracy counts stemming from FTX's 2022 collapse in what prosecutors have called one of the biggest financial frauds in U.S. history.

(Reporting by Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)