Former FTX Exec Ryan Salame Drops Dismissal Bid After Girlfriend’s Indictment

• Former FTX Bahamas head admitted to lying in court over plea deal violation.
• Judge Kaplan threatened to sue the former FTX executive for lying under oath.
• The FTX executive was sentenced to nearly eight years in prison in May for his role in FTX fraud.

Former FTX Bahamas head Ryan Salame is back in the spotlight after being sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for his role in the FTX fraud saga.

The former FTX executive dropped his dismissal bid after his girlfriend Michelle Bond was indicted for campaign financing violations.

Federal Judge Threatens to Sanction Salame

In his latest court appearance on Thursday, Sept. 12, Salame admitted to lying about plea deal arrangements.

The former FTX exec mentioned that the plea deal was only verbal and made to his then-attorney.

The admission irked U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who said he would take some time to decide whether Salame should be sanctioned for lying under oath.

“You are asking me to let stand a conviction and sentence that I now know is based on false testimony before me in the plea allocution,” Judge Kaplan told Salame on Thursday.

The judge also asked Salame to surrender to prison by Oct. 11 , two days earlier than the pre-decided date of Oct. 13, as it falls on Sunday.

FTX Executive Claims Fed Didn’t Keep Their Promise

Salame had previously requested that the federal court dismiss his sentencing over plea deal violations.

In a federal court filing dated Aug. 21, Salame requested that Bond’s indictment be blocked or his conviction and plea agreement vacated.

Salame claimed authorities promised to stop any investigation into his girlfriend if he entered a plea agreement.

However, after he was handed nearly eight years of prison sentence in May, the government reopened its investigation into Bond.

Bond is a crypto advocate and 2022 Republican congressional candidate, which has given authorities a straw to look into due to Salame’s history of political donations. The government is investigating Bond for violating campaign finance laws.

Salame, a prolific political donor during his time at FTX, eventually pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance laws.

The former FTX Bahamas chief alleged that prosecutors used plea negotiations to threaten his partner and broke the plea deal.

An excerpt from Salame’s court filing read:

“In this case, the government failed to honor the implied assurances it gave to secure Salame’s guilty plea, which any reasonable person would have interpreted as an assurance that the government would discontinue any investigation of Bond.”

Attorney Christopher Bartolomucci said that authorities conveyed they “would discontinue investigating Bond if Salame pleaded guilty” in an effort to induce Salame’s plea.

How Would Salame’s Claims Fair in the Court?

Salame made some bold claims in his court filing, but the real question is whether he can prove them in a court of law. 

In the latter part of Bankman-Fried’s trial last year , Salame declined to sign a cooperation agreement or testify against his former boss. 

Salame’s allegation that prosecutors assured him is unsupported by any written formal clause in his plea bargain. 

However, the former FTX executives claimed an assistant U.S. Attorney informed him that while the requirement could not be included in his plea deal, the government’s completion of Salame’s investigation would also mean the end of the inquiry into Bond.

The FTX crypto exchange collapsed in November 2022, following which its cofounder and ex-CEO, Sam Bankman Fried, and the top executives faced several charges of fraud and tax evasion. 

Based on the charges against them, all these FTX executives were handed prison sentences of varying degrees.