A press release from the U.S. Department of Justice yesterday stated that Ryan Salame, the former co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets (FTX Bahamas entity), was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison for violating political donation laws and operating an unlicensed money transfer business.
(Former FTX executive Ryan Salame pleads guilty and is ordered to hand over $1.5 billion in ill-gotten gains)
Ryan Salame sentenced to 7.5 years
According to the statement, Judge Lewis Kaplan of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York sentenced Salame to up to 7.5 years in prison for two counts of violating political contribution laws and operating an unlicensed money transfer business.
Ryan Salame sought benefits for FTX and Alameda Research by illegally intervening in political activities and operating unregulated remittance businesses, helping FTX expand its influence and scale.
Prosecutors in the case emphasized in legal documents disclosed by Bloomberg:
The crime of political donations is one of the largest in U.S. history, with unlicensed and unregulated money transfer operations embezzling more than $1 billion in user funds.
Following the release of the verdict, Salame also returned to social platform X and frequently posted messages asking if any media wanted to conduct a public interview with him.
Salame previously notified the Bahamas Securities Commission of FTX’s fraudulent activities in November 2022 and pleaded guilty to the above charges in September of the following year.
Why did he ask for a longer sentence than the prosecutor?
Judge Kaplan weighed the five-to-seven-year sentencing recommendations of the four prosecutors in the case, as well as the content of Salame's legal team's defense, and sentenced him to 7.5 years in prison, which was clearly longer than what prosecutors had sought.
In response, Mark Bini, former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said:
Judge Kaplan's sentence, which was more than what prosecutors had sought, showed he considered the seriousness of the multimillion-dollar campaign-finance fraud scheme in which Salame was directly involved.
He added, "Although Salame and his attorneys tried to show remorse and cooperation, it is clear that Judge Kaplan did not accept it."
At the same time, as prosecutor Damian Williams mentioned in the statement, this case is also one of the few cases in the FTX case that is suspected of violating the political donation law; its political background may also have affected the judge’s decision:
Salame, along with SBF and former executive Nishad Singh, are suspected of illegally donating campaign funds and undermining trust in the U.S. electoral and financial systems.
However, even if he faces more than seven years in prison, Salame may still benefit from the First Step Act of 2018, which would allow eligible nonviolent offenders to apply for parole after serving half their sentence.
The FTX case is still unresolved
So far, other well-known employees in the FTX case, including Caroline Ellison, Nishad Singh and Gary Wang, have pleaded guilty and cooperated with the legal process, and have not yet been sentenced.
In addition, looking back at the two senior executives of crypto companies who were also sentenced to prison recently, former FTX CEO SBF and former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao CZ were sentenced to 25 years and 4 months in prison respectively.
(The last words spoken by the SBF court before being sentenced to 25 years in prison: Sorry FTX colleagues)
This article: Second person jailed in FTX case! Former executive Ryan Salame was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison, which is higher than the sentence sought by prosecutors. First appeared on Chain News ABMedia.
