The news release from the US Department of Justice yesterday stated that Ryan Salame, the former CEO of FTX Digital Markets (FTX Bahamas), has been sentenced to 7.5 years in prison for violating campaign finance laws and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.
FTX former executive Ryan Salame pleaded guilty and was ordered to forfeit $1.5 billion in illegal proceeds.
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Ryan Salame sentenced to 7.5 years
Why is the sentence higher than what the prosecutors requested?
FTX case is not yet concluded
Statement
According to the news release, Judge Lewis Kaplan of the Southern District of New York sentenced Salame to 7.5 years in prison for the two charges of violating campaign finance laws and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.
Ryan Salame used illegal involvement in political activities and unregulated money transmitting businesses to benefit FTX and Alameda Research, helping FTX expand its influence and scale.
The prosecutors in the case emphasized in legal documents disclosed by Bloomberg that political campaign finance crimes are one of the largest crimes in US history, and unlicensed money transmitting businesses misappropriated over $1 billion of user funds.
With the announcement of the verdict, Salame has returned to the social platform X and frequently posted, asking if any media outlets are interested in conducting public interviews.
Earlier, in November 2022, Salame reported FTX’s fraudulent activities to the Securities Commission of the Bahamas and pleaded guilty to the charges in September of the following year.
Judge Kaplan considered the sentencing recommendations of the four prosecutors, ranging from 5 to 7 years, and the defense arguments from Salame’s legal team, and sentenced him to 7.5 years in prison, which is obviously longer than the sentence requested by the prosecutors.
Regarding the reasons behind this, former Assistant US Attorney Mark Bini stated that Judge Kaplan’s decision to sentence Salame to a longer term than what the prosecutors requested indicates that he considers the millions of dollars in campaign finance fraud directly involved by Salame to be extremely serious. He added, “Despite Salame and his lawyers’ attempts to show remorse and cooperation, Judge Kaplan clearly did not accept it.”
At the same time, as mentioned in a statement by prosecutor Damian Williams, this case is one of the few cases in the FTX case that involves violations of campaign finance laws. The background of the case being related to politics may have also influenced the judge’s decision. Salame and SBF, as well as former executive Nishad Singh, are suspected of making illegal campaign donations, damaging public trust in US elections and the financial system.
However, even facing a sentence of over 7 years, Salame may still benefit from the First Step Act of 2018, where eligible non-violent offenders can apply for parole after serving half of their sentence.
To date, other well-known employees involved in the FTX case, including Caroline Ellison, Nishad Singh, and Gary Wang, have all pleaded guilty and cooperated with the legal process, and have not yet been sentenced.
In addition, looking back at two other cryptocurrency company executives who were recently sentenced to prison, former FTX CEO SBF was sentenced to 25 years, and former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao CZ was sentenced to 4 months.
Caroline Ellison
FTX
Gary Wang
Nishad Singh
Ryan Salame
SBF
US Department of Justice
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