Ever since a federal decide sentenced Ryan Salame to 7.5 years in jail in Could for his position within the collapse of the failed crypto change FTX, the previous government has assumed a defiant tone, sparring with critics, prosecutors, and even his personal legal professionals.
However Thursday, on the eve of his departure to a federal correction middle, Salame poked enjoyable at his bleak place. “I’m comfortable to share that I’m beginning a brand new place as Inmate at FCI Cumberland!” he posted on LinkedIn.
The Republican kingmaker
Within the rubble of FTX’s collapse, Salame has stood aside from his former colleagues like Caroline Ellison and Nishad Singh. Whereas they got here from a nerdy, efficient altruist background and backed Democratic causes, Salame constructed a repute as a hard-partying extrovert. In his quick stint as a younger crypto government, he additionally made a reputation for himself in D.C. as a Republican donor—a distinction that helped him discover his now-wife, the crypto lobbyist Michelle Bond, but in addition landed him in sizzling water with prosecutors.
And whereas different members of Sam Bankman-Fried’s internal circle cooperated with the Justice Division, Salame pleaded responsible—but in addition invoked his Fifth Modification proper in opposition to self-incrimination. He didn’t testify at Bankman-Fried’s trial final fall. Whereas Ellison obtained only a two-year jail sentence regardless of her central position, the identical decide slapped Salame with a much more extreme sentence.
Following the instance of his former boss, Salame took to social media to plead his case to the general public. Within the final months earlier than his imprisonment, Salame continuously wrote on X concerning the failures of his legal professionals, the alleged lies instructed by former FTX staff of their retelling of occasions, and his personal culpability when it got here to sure crimes, like working an unlicensed cash transmitting enterprise.
Within the final days earlier than reporting to jail, he even went on a media tour of types, together with an look on Tucker Carlson’s speak present; Carlson shared Salame’s view that partisan prosecutors had been stringing him up due to his position as a Republican backer.
The ability couple
Whereas Salame’s public antics usually appeared humorous, the story turned darker when prosecutors unveiled expenses in opposition to Bond in August. Salame argued that he had labored out a cope with the Division of Justice that might spare Bond, with whom he has an toddler son, of marketing campaign finance expenses. Prosecutors denied the declare. Bond was then charged with three felony counts and faces a most sentence of 15 years in jail.
The Bond expenses underscore how FTX executives’ prodigious—and unlawful—contributions to political candidates stay a lingering thread. Throughout the previous two election cycles, FTX and its high workers had been among the many high donors in D.C., with prosecutors arguing that they used buyer funds and operated unlawful straw donor schemes to funnel donations by means of third events.
Due to extradition issues from the Bahamas, Bankman-Fried didn’t face marketing campaign finance expenses at his trial, and prosecutors dropped a second case in opposition to him after a decide sentenced him to 25 years in jail final November. As a substitute, Salame turned a poster baby for the violations, and shortly Bond was wrapped up within the case, illustrating that prosecutors are nonetheless digging into the sprawling community.
Of their indictment, prosecutors argued that Bond and Salame had orchestrated a “sham consulting” settlement price $400,000, which Bond then used to finance a failed congressional marketing campaign.
Whereas Bond’s case is ongoing, Salame is ready to report back to jail on Friday. He continued posting on X till the tip. “At this time I realized folks nonetheless use LinkedIn,” he wrote on Thursday evening, after his profession replace went viral.