The One Where Ryan Salame Tries to Be Funny
Ryan Salame, former co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, posted a mildly sardonic update on LinkedIn on Thursday, announcing his “new position as Inmate at FCI Cumberland.”
Salame will report to the Federal Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Maryland on Friday to begin serving a 7.5-year sentence for campaign finance law violations. The 31-year-old executive was convicted for his role in a straw donor scheme orchestrated by FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.
Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who presided over the case, described Salame’s actions as “astonishing” and imposed a sentence longer than prosecutors had requested. Salame pleaded guilty last year to participating in the scheme and evading US banking laws.
In a recent interview, Salame expressed frustration with his treatment and attempted to distance himself from Bankman-Fried’s inner circle. He claimed that his political donations, totaling $22.6 million to Republicans, were motivated by pandemic prevention efforts rather than influencing crypto policies. However, Judge Kaplan emphasized that Salame knew his actions were illegal and intended to conceal them.
Salame’s last-minute efforts to backtrack on his guilty plea were dismissed by prosecutors as “shameless.” He accused the Justice Department of reneging on an alleged agreement to drop an investigation into his wife, Michelle Bond, in exchange for his plea. The Manhattan US Attorney’s Office refuted this claim.
Salame has maintained a defiant stance even after his conviction. He has criticized the prosecution’s handling of the case and even considered testifying in Bankman-Fried’s defense, arguing that much of the narrative surrounding FTX is “verifiably false.” Salame is now pinning his hopes on a potential presidential pardon.
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