Ryan Salame, a former top lieutenant of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, was sentenced to 90 months — or seven-and-a-half years — in prison on Tuesday, making him the latest individual connected to the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange to land behind bars.
Ryan Salame Is Going To Prison For Nearly 8 Years
In a Tuesday hearing in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Ryan Salame to serve 7.5 years in prison for conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business and conducting campaign finance fraud. The former FTX executive pleaded guilty to the charges in September 2023 and has since been awaiting sentencing.
“Ryan Salame agreed to advance the interests of FTX, Alameda Research, and his co-conspirators through an unlawful political influence campaign and through an unlicensed money transmitting business, which helped FTX grow faster and larger by operating outside of the law,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a release May 28 following the sentencing.
The US Attorney Damian postulated that Salame, as one of the top officials at Alameda Research and co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, colluded with others to illegally transmit customer funds and make confidential political donations.
“Salame’s involvement in two serious federal crimes undermined public trust in American elections and the integrity of the financial system. Today’s sentence underscores the substantial consequences for such offenses.”
In addition to prison time, Salame was sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay more than $6 million in forfeiture and over $5 million in restitution.
The ex-FTX executive had hoped to get a shorter sentence of 18 months behind bars. His legal team noted Salame did not play a major role in fraudulent actions and had cooperated with U.S. authorities.
Salame was the second figurehead linked to FTX and Alameda Research to be sentenced after CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. Former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison, former FTX engineering director Nishad Singh and FTX co-founder Gary Wang all pleaded guilty to crimes in connection with FTX’s collapse and took the stand to testify against Bankman-Fried. Fallen crypto king Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years behind bars in March, but Ellison, Singh, and Wang are hoping to avoid prison time altogether.
