Key points to remember
- Yesterday the FBI raided the home of former FTX executive Ryan Salame.
- Salame made $24 million in campaign contributions to US politicians during the midterm elections.
- Sam Bankman-Fried has previously been charged with breaking campaign finance laws.
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Former FTX Digital Markets Co-CEO Ryan Salame is under investigation for his role in Sam Bankman-Fried’s empire. He is currently under scrutiny for the $24 million in political contributions he made during the 2022 midterm elections.
Violation of campaign finance laws
The fallout from FTX’s collapse continues.
According to the New York Times, the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided the $4 million Washington DC home of former FTX executive Ryan Salame on Thursday morning.
Salame joined FTX’s sister company, Alameda Research, as head of OTC transactions in November 2019. He then became co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, the Bahamian trading arm of FTX, shortly after relocating from the Hong Kong company in the Bahamas, in 2021. The bankruptcy of FTX The team claimed that as one of Sam Bankman-Fried’s most trusted advisers, Salame pocketed at least $87 million in bonuses and in loans from Alameda.
Salame is under scrutiny for donating more than $24 million in campaign contributions to U.S. politicians during the 2022 midterm elections. The Justice Department alleges that FTX executives (including Salame, co- FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and former FTX chief engineering officer Nishad Singh) have donated over $90 million with funds originally owned by FTX clients. While Bankman-Fried has publicly donated $46.5 million over the past two years to political entities associated with the Democratic Party, Salame has made contributions to Republican candidates on Bankman-Fried’s behalf.
Prosecutors have yet to file charges against Salame. Bankman-Fried himself has faced thirteen criminal charges, including fraud, conspiracy, violation of campaign finance laws and violation of anti-corruption provisions. He currently pleads not guilty to all counts. Other members of Bankman-Fried’s inner circle, including Singh, FTX co-founder Gary Wang, and former Alameda Research Caroline Ellison, pleaded guilty to various fraud and money laundering charges, and allegedly cooperated with US authorities.
Disclosure: At the time of writing this article, the author of this article owned BTC, ETH, and several other crypto assets.