Former FTX Executive Challenges Guilty Plea, Alleges Broken Promise by Prosecutors

TLDR:

• Former FTX executive Ryan Salame is seeking to void his guilty plea
• He claims prosecutors broke a promise to stop investigating his partner Michelle Bond
• Salame was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison for campaign finance and money transmitting crimes
• He alleges the plea negotiations were “unlawfully coercive”
• Prosecutors reject Salame’s claims as “self-serving and inaccurate”

Ryan Salame, a former top executive at the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has filed a petition to void his guilty plea in a criminal case involving campaign finance and money transmitting crimes.

Salame, who was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison in May, claims that federal prosecutors reneged on an agreement not to investigate his fiancée, Michelle Bond, if he pleaded guilty.

In a court filing on August 21, Salame’s lawyers argued that during plea negotiations, the government implied it would discontinue investigating Bond for campaign finance violations if Salame entered a guilty plea.

Based on this assurance, Salame agreed to plead guilty to two felony charges in September 2023. However, he now alleges that the government has since resumed its investigation into Bond.

It’s all true but I just made a court filing I’m pretty nervous about because I know it means the most powerful body in the world is going to come at me and my loved ones again, but I’m hoping it encourages more people to be honest and tell the truth and expose un-American…

— Ryan Salame (@rsalame7926) August 21, 2024

Salame’s legal team contends that the government should be held to its commitment, either by dismissing any charges against Bond or allowing Salame to withdraw his guilty plea.

They argue that the prosecutor’s tactics of using a third party as leverage to induce his plea were “improper” and “coercive,” and that his plea should be invalidated on these grounds.

The former FTX Digital Markets co-CEO was sentenced for conspiracy to make unlawful political contributions, defraud the Federal Election Commission, and operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business.

He is scheduled to begin serving his sentence on October 13 and was ordered to pay more than $6 million in forfeiture and over $5 million in restitution.

Federal prosecutors investigated Bond, a former congressional candidate, in 2023 regarding contributions to her 2022 campaign for the Republican primary in New York’s first congressional district. The investigation focused on funds Salame gave to Bond and loans she provided for her campaign.

In response to Salame’s petition, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has reportedly rejected his claims, describing them as self-serving and inaccurate. Prosecutors insist that Salame was explicitly informed that his guilty plea would not halt the investigation into Bond’s conduct.

Salame’s allegations come as he prepares to begin his prison sentence later this year. Unlike other top FTX executives, including Caroline Ellison, Nishad Singh, and Gary Wang, Salame did not cooperate with prosecutors or testify against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.