Former FTX Executive Ryan Salame Begins Prison Sentence

Former FTX executive Ryan Salame has begun serving his prison sentence of seven and a half years at a Maryland prison, records show.

Salame, previously the co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, is in custody at FCI Cumberland in Maryland as of Saturday morning, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website. The prison is a medium security federal correctional institution with an adjacent minimum security satellite camp. It has over 1000 inmates, according to its website.

On Thursday, Salame shared a post on LinkedIn, seemingly poking fun at his situation.

> "I'm happy to share that I'm starting a new position as Inmate at FCI Cumberland," Salame posted.

Salame pled guilty in September to conspiring to make unlawful political contributions as well as conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business. He worked closely with former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, who was sentenced in March to almost 25 years in prison following a criminal fraud trial late last year. Former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison was sentenced last month to two years for her role in the collapse of FTX.

Dog Bite Delay Denied

At the last minute, Salame's lawyers asked the court on Wednesday if he could start his prison time on Dec. 7 to get medical care after being injured by a dog over the summer. Salame previously asked for his prison time to be pushed back from August to October to get urgent surgery following the incident with the dog, which the court granted. Salame's lawyers said he saw a doctor on July 3 and was evaluated "after sustaining a dog-bite injury to the face," according to a previous filing.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan denied Salame's request on Friday and said it seemed as though Salame had substantial recovery, pointing to an interview he did with conservative political commentator Tucker Carlson.

> "He recently participated in a videotaped interview with Tucker Carlson, during which he similarly appears physically recovered and entirely unimpaired while answering questions," Kaplan said.

During that interview, Salame criticized the judge, claiming he misrepresented facts, including that he pulled out money before FTX filed for bankruptcy. During his sentencing hearing, Judge Kaplan noted Salame prioritized himself, stating, "I’m getting in the lifeboat first. To heck with all those customers," according to multiple news reports.

> "The whole thing was odd, the whole experience of it," Salame said.

Salame's partner, Michelle Bond, also faces charges. She was criminally charged in August with allegedly conspiring in an unlawful campaign finance scheme.

Bond ran unsuccessfully for a U.S. House seat in 2022 in New York's 1st district as a Republican. Soon after, prosecutors claimed Bond's romantic partner, who was a high-level executive at a Bahamas-based subsidiary of a now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange, organized a sham consulting agreement between Bond and the exchange.

Through that agreement, Bond was paid $400,000 which she then allegedly used to unlawfully finance her campaign, according to the indictment.

Salame has pushed back against Bond's charges, accusing prosecutors of using plea negotiations to threaten his partner and mother of his eight-month-old child. He claimed he pleaded guilty only under the promise that the government would drop its investigation of Bond. Salame moved to dismiss the indictment of his partner or, if not, overturn his conviction. Prosecutors stated that Salame's request is baseless and maintained that his guilty plea would not stop an investigation into Bond during a meeting in May 2023.

Salame mentioned in his interview with Carlson that he plans to teach a course about digital assets and the economy while in prison.