United States prosecutors in the case against Ryan Salame have allegedly linked the former FTX Digital Markets co-CEO to the names of Thai prostitutes as part of efforts to unfreeze accounts tied to FTX and Alameda Research.
In a Sept. 5 filing in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, US Attorneys filed a memorandum opposing Salame’s motion to vacate his guilty plea as part of charges involving campaign finance violations. The former FTX co-CEO had already withdrawn his petition to vacate the plea on Aug. 29, but Judge Lewis Kaplan said both parties would appear on Sept. 12 to address the matter at a hearing.
The prosecutors’ motion did not mince words, calling Salame’s petition “shameless and self-serving” and “procedurally defective and factually and legally meritless.” He initially filed the petition after authorities suggested they would pursue an investigation into his partner, Michelle Bond.
“The untimeliness of the Petition dovetails with its transparent insincerity and lack of merit,” said the Sept. 5 filing. “Having purported to accept full responsibility for his actions prior to sentencing, Salame now resorts to inaccurate, incomplete, and outright false assertions in an effort to evade the sentence imposed for his involvement in an illegal campaign finance scheme that was unprecedented in scale, and for his role in funneling billions of dollars through an unlicensed money transmitting business.”
Bond, who ran as a Republican for a seat in the US House of Representatives in 2022, faces four charges related to campaign finance law violations. Salame said he intended to raise the matter of his plea deal in her criminal case. Both were free on bail at the time of publication.
Throwback to Alameda bribery scandal
The Sept. 5 filing also disclosed notes from an April 2023 video conference call with Assistant US Attorneys that seemed to reference former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried allegedly bribing Chinese officials to unfreeze funds tied to Alameda locked in local exchanges. Prosecutors alleged Salame was involved in the bribery scheme by opening accounts using the names of Thai prostitutes.
Email containing notes from an April 2023 conference call with US Assistant US Attorneys. Source: SDNY
In her testimony at Bankman-Fried’s trial, former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison said the firm paid a $150 million bribe to Chinese government officials to unlock $1 billion in funds in Huobi and OKX accounts, frozen in 2021. The attorneys’ notes suggested that Salame may also have played a role in unfreezing the funds.
“You previously said [Salame] was generally aware that an account on a Chinese exchange was frozen and FTX/Alameda made a payment of $50M,” said Assistant US Attorney Danielle Sassoon. “We have evidence that [Salame] was involved in efforts to unfreeze the accounts, including by opening crypto accounts to enable self-trading. Our understanding is that he used the [Personally Identifiable Information] of people he identified as Thai prostitutes to open the accounts.”
Sassoon also added notes from a May 2023 conference call suggesting that any resolution of Salame’s case “will not bear on [Bond’s] case and investigation of her conduct.” Cointelegraph contacted Salame through LinkedIn for comment but did not receive a response at the time of publication.
Likely going to prison
In September 2023, Salame pleaded guilty to conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business and engaging in campaign finance fraud. In May, a federal judge sentenced the former FTX executive to 90 months in prison. He is scheduled to report on Oct. 13.
Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison in March, but his legal team has filed a notice of appeal. Ellison, former FTX engineering director Nishad Singh and FTX co-founder Gary Wang have yet to be sentenced following their guilty pleas.
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