NEW YORK: Ryan Salame, the former co-CEO of FTX’s Bahamian subsidiary and a top lieutenant to the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange’s founder Sam Bankman-Fried, pleaded guilty on Thurday to making tens of millions of dollars in unlawful campaign donations to boost causes supported by his boss.
Salame, 30, pleaded guilty at a hearing before US district judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan to one count of conspiracy to make unlawful political contributions and one count of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business. Prosecutors said Salame told a confidante that Bankman-Fried hoped political donations would “weed-out” anti-crypto Democratic and Republican lawmakers – meaning defeat them in elections. He said his boss would likely route money for donations to Republican candidates through Salame.
“I knew it was prohibited by campaign finance laws to make contributions in my name with money that was not my own,” Salame said.Salame joined Alameda in 2019, two years after Bankman-Fried founded it and became co-chief executive of FTX’s Bahamian affiliate in late 2021. He worked for Ernst & Young and Circle Internet Financial before joining FTX Digital Markets.