Federal Judge Threatens Ryan Salame With Sanctions After Former FTX Exec Says He Lied About Plea Deal Last Year

A federal judge on Thursday told former FTX executive Ryan Salame that he could be hit with sanctions after Salame lied to the judge about prosecutors not making promises to him as part of his plea deal last year, CNBC reported.

Ryan Salame pled guilty to campaign finance violations as well as running an unlicensed money transmitting business in September 2023, for which he was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison in May.

But in a 32-page memorandum to U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan of the Southern District of New York (SDNY) last week, Salame argued that prosecutors had promised him that they would cease any investigations into Michelle Bond, Salame’s long-time partner and mother of his child, as part of his plea deal.

“You are asking me to let stand a conviction and sentence that I now know is based on false testimony before me in the plea allocution,” Kaplan told Salame on Thursday, claiming repeatedly that the former FTX exec “induced” the Judge to accept his guilty plea.

Prosecutors previously argued that Salame and his lawyers knew that his plea deal wouldn’t resolve any investigations into Bond and that they never made such a promise, formally or informally. Emails shared by the Department of Justice show that prosecutors at least took and shared notes with each other confirming the lack of any such promise.

However, other emails sent by defense attorneys suggest that at the very least, there was a communications breakdown somewhere.

Bond was charged with violating campaign finance laws due to her allegedly taking illegal campaign contributions from Salame and other employees of FTX while running for Congress in 2022. She is facing a maximum of 20 years in prison.

Kaplan on Thursday said that he would need some time to decide how to go about this matter. He told Salame that he must report to prison on Oct. 11.