Former FTX exec Ryan Salame and US prosecutors are discussing a plea deal: Report


Ryan Salame, the former co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, is reportedly discussing a guilty plea with authorities in the United States.

According to an Aug. 8 Bloomberg report, lawyers for Salame could enter a guilty plea as early as September, in advance of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Friedโ€™s criminal trial, scheduled to start on Oct. 2. Prosecutors had reportedly been investigating Salame for potential violations of U.S. campaign finance law related to his girlfriend Michelle Bondโ€™s run for Congress, in which they both allegedly exceeded the federal limits on contributions.

Itโ€™s unclear whether Salame could be a witness at either of Bankman-Friedโ€™s trials โ€” one for seven counts in October 2023 and another for five counts in March 2024. FTX Digital Markets was the crypto exchangeโ€™s affiliate in the Bahamas, where Salame tipped off the authorities about FTXโ€™s and Bankman-Friedโ€™s alleged fraud.

Related: Prosecutors will still consider Sam Bankman-Friedโ€™s alleged campaign finance scheme at trial

Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to all 12 charges he's currently facing. However, former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang pleaded guilty to fraud charges in December 2022. Ellison is expected to be a witness in the U.S. prosecutorsโ€™ case against SBF starting in October despite recently being targeted in a New York Times article exposing personal details about her relationship with the former CEO.

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