Ryan Salame, former co-chief executive officer of FTX Digital Markets Ltd., exits federal court in New York, US, on Tuesday, May 28, 2024.
Yuki Iwamura | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Ryan Salame, a former top lieutenant at FTX under founder Sam Bankman-Fried, asked a judge to void the deal he reached with the government and his guilty plea.
In a filing docketed on Wednesday, lawyers for Salame asked that his conviction be vacated, alleging that the government breached a key piece of the agreement, not to investigate his partner, Michelle Bond.
“The Government used the plea negotiations to threaten Salame’s domestic partner and the mother of his child,” the motion says.
“In an effort to induce Salame’s plea, Government lawyers conveyed they would discontinue investigating Bond if Salame pleaded guilty. Considering Salame’s manifest desire to protect Bond, Salame responded by agreeing to enter into a plea agreement,” his lawyers write.
According to the filing, the government has re-opened its probe into Bond.
In a post on X, Salame writes, “It’s all true but I just made a court filing I’m pretty nervous about because I know it means the most powerful body in the world is going to come at me and my loved ones again, but I’m hoping it encourages more people to be honest and tell the truth and expose un-American.”
In May, the ex-FTX exec was sentenced to 90 months, or seven and a half years, in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. Salame has also been ordered to pay more than $6 million in forfeiture and more than $5 million in restitution.
Salame pled guilty to charges, but notably he was not a cooperating witness for the government. Salame did, however, testify in the criminal trial of his former boss, Sam Bankman-Fried.
The charges against Salame stemmed from his involvement in a multi-million dollar campaign finance scheme during his tenure at FTX.
Sam Bankman-Fried was allegedly also deeply involved in the campaign finance scheme. But the government decided not to pursue similar charges against Bankman-Fried after he had already been convicted by a jury on seven counts related to securities fraud and money laundering.
Bankman-Fried is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence on that conviction. Salame is due to surrender in October.
Three other cooperating witnesses who testified against Bankman-Fried at trial and pleaded guilty are still awaiting sentencing.
They include Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research, who at one time dated Bankman-Fried. Also convicted was former FTX engineering chief Nishad Singh; and Gary Wang, the co-founder and chief technology officer of FTX.
Singh and Wang will be sentenced Oct. 30 and Nov. 20, respectively. Ellison’s sentencing has not been scheduled yet.
— CNBC’s Dan Mangan contributed to this report.
