Former FTX Exec Is Still Fighting Legal Battle With Prosecutors

Key Points:

• Former FTX executive Ryan Salame is seeking to overturn his 7.5-year prison sentence.
• U.S. Attorney General Damian Williams has accused Bond of accepting illegal campaign donations and failing to disclose FTX-related investments.
• Judge Lewis Kaplan has described Salame’s plea withdrawal request as “ambiguous” and is considering possible sanctions.

Former FTX exec Ryan Salame attended the court today with Judge Lewis Kaplan questioning the circumstances of Salame’s guilty plea that resulted in a seven-and-a-half-year prison term.

Read more: Caroline Ellison Faces Sentencing On Sep 24 In FTX Fraud Case 

Former FTX Exec Vying to Undo Plea Deal with Prosecutors

The former FTX exec has hired lawyers to fight the plea deal, claiming that prosecutors breached undertakings that were made when the deal was being reached.

Salame, who was involved in the FTX scandal, was trying to withdraw the plea, stating that it was entered under coercion. His attorneys claim that the prosecutors threatened not to investigate his partner, Michelle Bond, in a plea-bargain deal where he was forced to plead guilty.

Salame’s former girlfriend, Bond, who was a congressional candidate in the past and the mother of Salame’s child, was later arrested in relation to another case wherein they sought to influence the United state’s elections through FTX.

In late August 2022, U.S. Attorney General Damian Williams threatened to charge Bond with violating the Federal Election Campaign Act regarding campaign funding. According to reports, Bond did not declare investments coming from FTX’s related entities in the Federal Election Commission forms.

Judge Questions Salame’s Plea Withdrawal Request

According to The Block, Judge Kaplan, who presides over the case in the Southern District of New York, has referred to Salame’s plea withdrawal request as “ambiguous” and “inconsistent. ” He has also not ruled out the possibility of sanctions against the former FTX exec.

The United States Attorney Office Southern District of New York has denied the existence of a regular understanding to refrain from investigating Bond, and lead prosecutor Danielle R. Sassoon outright dismissed the existence of such an understanding.

In October 2023, Salame’s attorneys claimed that the Manhattan U. S. Attorney’s Office affirmed to Salame in April 2023 that Bond would not be prosecuted criminally so long as he pleaded guilty. Nevertheless, barely two weeks after the former FTX exec sought to withdraw his plea, Bond was indicted for several campaign finance law offences.

Still, Salame’s lawyers have persisted in moving the court to set aside the guilty plea saying that the prosecutors had not honored the agreement. The legal war is still raging, the former FTX exec’s side facing numerous challenges while trying to defend themselves and advance the case forward, all the while Bond and her team are also facing their legal struggles.