SBF’s Political Fixer Salame Stands Defiant on His Way to Prison

(Bloomberg) -- Ryan Salame, one of Sam Bankman-Fried’s top lieutenants at FTX, is running out of road as the start of his jail term looms for crimes committed while working at the fraudulent cryptocurrency exchange.

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Salame is due to report to a federal correctional institution in Cumberland, Maryland, on Friday to begin a sentence of 7 1/2 years for campaign-finance law violations that the judge in the case, Lewis A. Kaplan, labeled “astonishing.”

But as he counts down his remaining hours of freedom, the 31-year-old exudes a sense of vexation at supposedly harsh treatment rather than contrition for felonies that Kaplan said jeopardized the stability of political life in the US.

Salame last year pleaded guilty to taking part in a straw donor scheme for Bankman-Fried as well as evading US banking laws. In an interview on Tuesday, he said he entered the plea to protect his wife, crypto lobbyist Michelle Bond.

He stumbled over a last-minute attempt to backtrack as he accused prosecutors of reneging on an assurance they’d drop a probe into Bond in return for his admission of guilt. The Manhattan US Attorney’s Office has refuted that, labeling Salame’s attempt to backtrack “shameless.”

Massive Donations

The huge political donations to Republicans at the heart of the case were more about preventing another pandemic rather than influencing lawmakers’ stance on digital assets, he said. FTX founder Bankman-Fried is widely viewed as the progenitor of one of the biggest frauds in US history, yet Salame said he considered testifying in his defense and that the former billionaire didn’t get a fair trial.

“We never conspired on who to contribute to,” he said. “And Sam never once asked me to give a donation anywhere.”

While Salame wasn’t accused of helping Bankman-Fried steal about $10 billion from customers, investors and lenders, Kaplan viewed the campaign-donation breaches as serious enough to merit a longer jail term than prosecutors had sought. “He knew it was illegal, and the whole idea was to hide it from the world,” Kaplan said when he sentenced Salame in May.

Salame was due to surrender to the Federal Bureau of Prisons on Aug. 29 but in July asked for a delay to undergo surgery after being attacked by a dog.

Hoping for Pardon

Salame is now hanging his hopes on a pardon from whomever emerges as president in the contest between Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican candidate Donald Trump.

“I’d be much more shocked if Harris would grant it based on, sort of, political things,” said Salame, who contributed $22.6 million to Republicans while at FTX, Federal Election Commission records show. “But I think there’s a good case either way. If anyone pays attention for half a second, a lot of this doesn’t make any sense.”

Like many convicted felons, Salame’s protestations across social media and court filings face a credibility gap. He’s accused the Justice Department of corruption, tried to block Bond — the mother of his child — from being indicted via a niche legal maneuver and repeatedly questioned the reliability of former colleagues who helped convict Bankman-Fried.

Federal prosecutors have rebuffed Salame’s claim about an implied agreement over dropping the probe into Bond, saying there was never such an assurance. Prosecutors argued in a court filing in August that there was nothing stopping the US Attorney’s office from continuing to investigate Bond, which it did. In August, Bond was charged with campaign finance violations in connection with her unsuccessful run for Congress in 2022.

Legal Fees

Salame said he paid $6 million in fees to law firm Mayer Brown. “So like, these are the best of the best lawyers,” he said. “And if they tell me there’s an inducement on the table, well, who am I to say that’s not true?”

Lawyers for Bond and Salame didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Salame claims he wasn’t in Bankman-Fried’s inner circle, despite being the ex-chief executive of FTX’s Bahamas subsidiary. Unlike Nishad Singh, Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang — former executives at FTX or its sister trading firm Alameda Research who pleaded guilty to crimes at the group — Salame didn’t strike a deal to testify for the government during Bankman-Fried’s trial. In fact, he said, he came close to testifying in Bankman-Fried’s defense.

“Not because I think he’s innocent, but because a ton of the narrative is just verifiably false,” he alleged. “People that worked at FTX know this, people that worked at Alameda know this.”

Several former FTX and Alameda employees testified at Bankman-Fried’s trial about rampant misconduct at the company, some after admitting to their own crimes and others under immunity. Prosecutors presented a trove of evidence – encrypted messages, spreadsheets, emails and personal diary notes – that supported the testimony. The jury deliberated for about less than five hours before delivering a guilty verdict. Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in jail.

Political Engagement

Salame said his political interest was ignited by Sam Bankman-Fried’s younger brother, Gabriel, who sold him on the need to advocate for pandemic prevention efforts, and not a desire to raise FTX’s profile or influence US crypto policies. With the help of a savvy political adviser and a personal super-PAC that FEC records show he put $15 million into, he was meeting with lawmakers, he said. They viewed him as the “crypto guy,” he said, and he got more questions about Bitcoin than biosecurity.

He attended events like a meeting organized by the American Opportunity Alliance, a Republican donor network where Salame said he met billionaires Paul Singer and Charles Schwab. Then the wheels came off when FTX derailed and crashed into bankruptcy in 2022, ushering in a frigid crypto winter.

The digital-asset market rebounded this year, and ironically crypto companies flush with cash are again major players in campaign finance via political action committees. They are seeking friendlier regulations, while critics who view the industry as mainly a magnet for criminals are scratching their heads over why the sector even exists.

In a post on LinkedIn on Thursday, Salame wrote that he’s “starting a new position as Inmate at FCI Cumberland!” In the interview, he was already imagining life after prison, saying he could utilize his “very good” crypto trading skills or even start a social-media platform for politicians to reach voters. “I am weirdly optimistic,” he said.

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