Ex-FTX Insider Salame Says US Broke Deal on Girlfriend Probe

Ava Benny-Morrison and Chris Dolmetsch
·3-min read

(Bloomberg) -- Former FTX executive Ryan Salame has asked a US judge to either vacate his conviction or block any indictment of his girlfriend, alleging prosecutors reneged on a deal to stop investigating her if he entered into a plea agreement.

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But the government lawyers who brought the criminal cases against FTX insiders say there was no such deal and labeled Salame’s allegations false and incomplete.

The one-time boss of FTX’s Bahamas subsidiary made his sensational claims in a federal court filing Wednesday in New York, almost three months after he was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison for his role in illegal activities at the cryptocurrency platform before it collapsed.

According to the filing, prosecutors used plea negotiations to threaten Salame’s partner Michelle Bond, who is the mother of his eight-month-old child. In April 2023, the Federal Bureau of Investigation searched the Maryland home that Bond, a crypto advocate and 2022 Republican congressional candidate, shared with Salame.

“In an effort to induce Salame’s plea, government lawyers conveyed that they would discontinue investigating Bond if Salame pleaded guilty,” attorney Christopher Bartolomucci wrote.

US District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan on Thursday scheduled a hearing on Salame’s motion for Sept. 12.

A spokesman for the Manhattan US Attorney’s Office declined to comment. But in a letter filed in court on Wednesday night, the office presented a different view and urged the court to reject Salame’s “shameless” bid to renege on his guilty plea.

The government says it told Salame’s lawyers explicitly in a virtual meeting in May 2023 that a guilty plea from him would not stop an investigation into Bond’s own conduct.

“It was after this call that Salame entered a guilty plea,” the government’s letter states.

Salame, a prolific political donor during his time at FTX, admitted to violating campaign finance laws and operating a unlicensed money transmitter. He alleges the government has resumed an investigation into Bond, who has yet to be charged with any crimes, for violating campaign finance laws.

Salame asked Kaplan to block any indictment of Bond, or else vacate his conviction and the plea agreement.

“In this case, the government failed to honor the implied assurances it gave to secure Salame’s guilty plea, which any reasonable person would have interpreted as an assurance that the government would discontinue any investigation of Bond,” Salame’s court filing states.

Lawyers for Salame and Bond didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Salame was the last of four top FTX figures to plead guilty to criminal offenses following a sweeping investigation that landed FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried behind bars for 25 years.

Unlike former Bankman-Fried lieutenants Nishad Singh, Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang, Salame didn’t sign a cooperation agreement or testify at Bankman-Fried’s trial late last year. There is no written condition in Salame’s plea agreement that supports his claims about an assurance from prosecutors.

He alleges an assistant US Attorney told him that although the condition couldn’t be written into his plea agreement, if the government wrapped up Salame’s investigation, that would also conclude the inquiry into Bond. Prosecutors say Salame is mistaken and that they told him a plea agreement would conclude the investigation concerning Salame, but not Bankman-Fried.

The motion comes less than two months before Salame is due to begin serving his prison sentence. The date was recently delayed so he could undergo surgery after being bitten on the face by a German Shepherd dog.

The case is US v. Bankman-Fried, 22-cr-00673, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

(Updates with details from prosecutor’s letter, hearing date)

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