🏛️ Ryan Salame Gets Dumped For 7.5 Years in Prison—
But You Can Keep The PORSCHE Dear 🏎️
The former co-conspirator to Sam Bankman-Fried has been sentenced to 90 months in prison— But he can hold onto his luxury toy.
📰 Former FTX executive Ryan Salame was sentenced to 7 & a half years in prison on Tuesday, making him the latest leader of the fallen cryptocurrency exchange to land behind bars for his role in its downfall. But the news isn't all bad for Salame.
While the one-time lieutenant to FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) and co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets Ltd. was braced for a years-long prison sentence—delivered in a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday—federal prosecutors said Salame can hold onto a luxury car he purchased amid FTX’s meteoric rise before the ruling.
The value of his 2021 Porsche 911 Turbo S "doesn't have sufficient equity to further pursue forfeiture,” the government said in a filing, arguing Salame should be required to pay the vehicle’s maintenance cost of $1,500. Previously, Salame agreed to forfeit $1.5 billion worth of assets in connection to FTX-related crimes.
Weeks before Bankman-Fried’s trial began—in which the former crypto mogul was found guilty of stealing $10 billion from customers, investors, & lenders—Salame struck a plea deal. He pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance law and operating an unlicensed money transmitter business last Sept. With U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan deciding his fate, other former SBF associates are now waiting in the wings.
Salame’s lawyers claim that their client was “duped” by Bankman-Fried into thinking FTX was stable. Yet prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum that Salame yanked over $5 million worth of crypto from FTX as the exchange buckled under a bevy of customer withdrawals in November 2022—just before it declared bankruptcy and shut down.
Though Salame made efforts to cooperate with the government, prosecutors described his interactions as “relatively minor” compared to other FTX insiders.
