Former FTX Exec Ryan Salame Makes Request to Withdraw Guilty Plea

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Tanzeel Akhtar

Journalist

Tanzeel Akhtar

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Tanzeel Akhtar has been covering the cryptocurrency and blockchain sector since 2015. She has written for the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, CoinDesk, Bitcoin Magazine and Bitcoin.com.

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August 22, 2024

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​​Former FTX executive and co-CEO of FTX Markets Ryan Salame has asked U.S. authorities to void his guilt plea after certain agreements were not met.

One of the terms included was that if Salame pleaded guilty to money-transmitting crimes U.S. authorities would discontinue investigating his partner Michelle Bond.

In a court filing, Salame’s lawyers said the U.S. government failed to keep its word and resumed its investigation of Bond for campaign finance violations.

Although Salame pleaded guilty to multiple counts in this matter, recent developments confirm that his conviction must be vacated. As shown below, the Government used the plea negotiations to threaten Salame’s domestic partner and the mother of his child, Michelle Bond. In an effort to induce Salame’s plea, Government lawyers conveyed that they would discontinue investigating Bond if Salame pleaded guilty. Considering Salame’s manifest desire to protect Bond, Salame responded by agreeing to enter into a plea agreement. Yet the Government failed to abide by its word, recently resuming its investigation into Bond and pursuing an indictment against her.”

The court filing from Ryan Salame’s lawyers filed 08/21/2024.

Salame shared the court document on X and went on to explain in a string of posts that the government has said his submission is self-serving.

The former FTX exec went on to add that his relationship with Bond, the mother of his children is over, “after a brutal and long and downright aggressive process, is finally divorced,” but he remains in love with Bond.

FTX Execs Await Fate Post Conviction Of Sam Bankman-Fried

Salame’s criminal troubles follow the dramatic collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange in November 2022 amid the revelation that FTX and its sister company, Alameda Research, misappropriated over $8 billion in customer funds.

Bankman-Fried was convicted in November 2022 following a month-long fraud trial that saw a handful of one-time friends and employees of the FTX founder testify against him, including FTX director of engineering Nishad Singh, FTX chief technology officer Gary Wang and Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison.

Bankman-Fried is currently serving 25 years in federal prison and has been ordered to pay $11 billion in forfeiture after having been sentenced in March.

In July, Salame requested his prison date for criminal charges be pushed back after being “mauled” by a dog. He suffered a “dog-bite injury to the face” after being “mauled by a German Shepherd while visiting a friend’s house.”