Ryan Salame, the former CEO of FTX Digital Markets Ltd, a subsidiary of bankrupt FTX Exchange in the Bahamas, was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison and 3 years of probation on Tuesday evening, becoming the first deputy of SBF (Sam Bankman-Fried) to be convicted. Despite his plea for leniency and a sentence of 18 months, which was part of his plea agreement with the prosecution earlier this month, his hopes were officially dashed.
Salame, who is 30 years old, reached a plea agreement with the US prosecution in September last year. He admitted to using funds from Alameda, under SBF’s instructions, to illegally donate tens of millions of dollars to both US political parties in his own name, commit fraud against the Federal Election Commission, and conspire to operate an unlicensed money transfer business. He was also one of the four FTX executives who became cooperating witnesses for the prosecution. SBF, on the other hand, was sentenced to 25 years in prison at the end of March and had over $11 billion in assets seized. His lawyers are currently preparing an appeal.
According to The New York Times, Salame’s sentence exceeds the prosecution’s request for a 5-7 year prison term and is much longer than the defense’s request for 18 months. This demonstrates the strict stance of Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who presided over the FTX case. During the sentencing, Judge Kaplan described the defendant’s crimes as “shocking” and deemed it necessary to impose a long prison term to convey the consequences of “distorting the US electoral system and its rules” to the wealthy.
In a statement from the US Southern District of New York, Assistant US Attorney Damian Williams stated on Tuesday that Salame claimed he was unaware of the SBF core group’s embezzlement of billions of dollars from FTX customers. However, the prosecution criticized Salame in a court memorandum for withdrawing $5 million from the exchange after its collapse, using it for personal expenses and hiring a public relations company. He also withdrew $600,000 from the FTX US platform account a few hours before its bankruptcy. In fact, Salame’s criminal motives were for money and expanding his influence.
When he pleaded guilty last year, Salame was ordered to forfeit over $1.5 billion in assets, agreed to pay $5.5 million to FTX’s creditors, and pay a $6 million fine to the government. He will also surrender two properties in Massachusetts and his Porsche.
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