Ryan Salame, a high government on the collapsed cryptocurrency trade FTX, was sentenced to seven and a half years in jail on Tuesday, making him the primary of Sam Bankman-Fried’s circle of advisers at FTX to obtain jail time.
Mr. Salame, 30, a trusted lieutenant of Mr. Bankman-Fried, the trade’s founder, pleaded responsible final 12 months to a marketing campaign finance regulation violation and a cost of working an unlicensed cash transmitting enterprise. He’s one in every of 4 high deputies within the FTX empire who’ve pleaded responsible to crimes for the reason that firm imploded in November 2022.
Mr. Salame’s sentence exceeded the 5 to seven years that prosecutors had beneficial. Protection attorneys had requested for 18 months.
Carrying a blue swimsuit and socks emblazoned with the Bitcoin brand, Mr. Salame stood going through Decide Lewis A. Kaplan because the sentence was learn aloud in U.S. District Courtroom in Manhattan. Decide Kaplan referred to as Mr. Salame’s crimes “astonishing.”
“The state of our political life on this nation is in jeopardy,” he stated. “Efforts like that undertaken by Mr. Salame and Bankman-Fried solely make issues worse.”
Mr. Salame is about to give up on Aug. 29. His attorneys requested that he serve his sentence on the federal jail in Cumberland, Md., close to his dwelling. Mr. Bankman-Fried is serving a 25-year sentence, after he was convicted of fraud and conspiracy at a trial final 12 months.
Earlier than FTX failed, Mr. Salame was a key determine on the trade, overseeing its subsidiary within the Bahamas, the place the corporate was primarily based. As FTX grew right into a $32 billion enterprise, Mr. Salame spent lavishly. He loved costly vehicles and personal jets, and purchased eating places within the Berkshires in Massachusetts. He was additionally a prolific political donor, giving greater than $24 million within the 2022 midterm elections, principally to Republicans.
When FTX imploded, Mr. Salame grew to become a goal of federal prosecutors, who searched his dwelling in Maryland. Mr. Bankman-Fried was charged with stealing $8 billion from FTX’s clients and utilizing the cash to finance political contributions, enterprise investments and luxurious actual property purchases. Three high FTX executives — Gary Wang, Nishad Singh and Caroline Ellison — pleaded responsible to monetary crimes and agreed to cooperate with the federal government. All of them await sentencing.
In September, Mr. Salame additionally pleaded responsible, admitting that he had acted as an unlawful “straw donor” who made political contributions on the path of Mr. Bankman-Fried to evade federal disclosure necessities. In a sentencing memo, prosecutors referred to as it “one of many largest ever” marketing campaign finance offenses in American historical past.
As a part of his plea deal, Mr. Salame agreed to pay a $6 million wonderful and greater than $5 million in restitution, and to forfeit two properties in Massachusetts, in addition to his Porsche.
Within the memo, prosecutors argued that Mr. Salame was motivated by a want for cash and affect. At the same time as FTX crumbled, he withdrew $5 million from the trade, utilizing the funds to repay private bills and rent a public-relations agency. Hours earlier than the chapter, the prosecutors wrote, Mr. Salame withdrew one other $600,000 from his account on FTX’s U.S. platform.
Decide Kaplan invoked these withdrawals on the listening to on Tuesday. “It was me first — I’m getting within the lifeboat first,” he stated of Mr. Salame. “To heck with all these clients.”
In their very own memo to Decide Kaplan, Mr. Salame’s protection attorneys stated he had not been conscious that Mr. Bankman-Fried was stealing billions of {dollars} from clients. That information “was as surprising and dismaying to Ryan Salame as to everybody else on the planet,” the attorneys wrote.
They stated Mr. Salame’s life had been “decimated” and that FTX’s demise introduced “disgrace and instability” to his household. Mr. Salame is in a long-term relationship with Michelle Bond, a former crypto trade lobbyist who additionally supported Mr. Bankman-Fried. In November, Ms. Bond gave delivery to the couple’s first youngster, the memo stated. Mr. Salame has additionally begun to grapple with a substance-abuse drawback, his attorneys wrote, and is planning to attend regulation faculty.
Addressing the courtroom on Tuesday, Jason Linder, a lawyer for Mr. Salame, described his shopper as “merely a software” of Mr. Bankman-Fried’s. In contrast to Mr. Wang, Mr. Singh and Ms. Ellison, Mr. Salame didn’t testify in opposition to Mr. Bankman-Fried in courtroom final 12 months. However his attorneys stated that he had voluntarily produced paperwork and “provided help and cooperation” to the federal government because it ready for the trial.
At Tuesday’s listening to, Mr. Linder pointed to rows crammed with family and friends members who had accompanied Mr. Salame, together with Ms. Bond and Mr. Salame’s mom and aunt.
Earlier than the sentence was introduced, Mr. Salame briefly addressed the courtroom, apologizing to FTX’s clients and his household. “Mother, I can’t think about how this feels for you,” he stated, his voice breaking.
However Decide Kaplan stated a protracted sentence was essential to ship a message to rich individuals about “the results of perverting our electoral system and its guidelines.”
Mr. Salame “knowingly and willfully assisted in destroying the restricted transparency that the legal guidelines of the US present on this space,” he stated.
