Former FTX exec discusses plea deal with US prosecutors
Former co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, Ryan Salame, is reportedly holding talks with US federal prosecutors about a guilty plea deal.
Ryan Salame, who was one of Sam Bankman-Fried’s close associates, is negotiating a guilty plea with US prosecutors, according to Bloomberg, which cited sources familiar with the matter.
The guilty plea could be as soon as September 2023, a month before Bankman-Fried is scheduled for trial. However, it is uncertain if Salame will agree to testify against SBF in the latter’s upcoming October trial.
One of the charges against Salame includes alleged violations of campaign finance laws. The former FTX co-chief, during his time at the company, was one of the prominent Republican donors, reportedly donating about $24 million to candidates of the party, with part of the recipients being Salame’s girlfriend, Michelle Bond.
Bond, the CEO of the Association for Digital Asset Markets (ADAM), contested in the Republican primary for New York’s 1st congressional district in 2022 and failed. A report by the Wall Street Journal in July 2023 revealed that Manhattan federal investigators were probing Salame and Bond to check if they went beyond the federal limits on contributions during Bond’s congressional campaign.
If Salame enters the plea deal, he would be the fourth close associate of Bankman-Fried to plead guilty since FTX collapsed in November 2022. Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang entered a guilty plea to various fraud charges in December 2022. FTX’s chief engineer Nishad Singh sought a cooperation deal with prosecutors.
SBF still faces illegal campaign finance allegations
Meanwhile, Salame’s campaign finance charge is said to be separate from the same accusation against Bankman-Fried’s, which the FTX co-founder and former CEO has pleaded not guilty to, along with other allegations.
Although US prosecutors recently dropped the charge accusing Bankman-Fried of making unlawful campaign donations, the US Department of Justice filed a letter to the court on August 8, stating that it would still charge the FTX boss “with conducting an illegal campaign finance scheme” in the October trial.
