Ever since a federal judge sentenced Ryan Salame to 7.5 years in prison in May for his role in the collapse of the failed crypto exchange FTX, the former executive has assumed a defiant tone, sparring with critics, prosecutors, and even his own lawyers.
But Thursday, on the eve of his departure to a federal correction center, Salame poked fun at his bleak position. “I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Inmate at FCI Cumberland!” he posted on LinkedIn.
The Republican kingmaker
In the rubble of FTX’s collapse, Salame has stood apart from his former colleagues like Caroline Ellison and Nishad Singh. While they came from a nerdy, effective altruist background and backed Democratic causes, Salame built a reputation as a hard-partying extrovert. In his short stint as a young crypto executive, he also made a name for himself in D.C. as a Republican donor—a distinction that helped him find his now-wife, the crypto lobbyist Michelle Bond, but also landed him in hot water with prosecutors.
And while other members of Sam Bankman-Fried’s inner circle cooperated with the Justice Department, Salame pleaded guilty—but also invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. He did not testify at Bankman-Fried’s trial last fall. While Ellison received just a two-year prison sentence despite her central role, the same judge slapped Salame with a far more severe sentence.
Following the example of his former boss, Salame took to social media to plead his case to the public. In the last months before his imprisonment, Salame frequently wrote on X about the failures of his lawyers, the alleged lies told by former FTX employees in their retelling of events, and his own culpability when it came to certain crimes, like operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.
In the last days before reporting to prison, he even went on a media tour of sorts, including an appearance on Tucker Carlson’s talk show; Carlson shared Salame’s view that partisan prosecutors were stringing him up because of his role as a Republican backer.
The power couple
While Salame’s public antics often seemed humorous, the story became darker when prosecutors unveiled charges against Bond in August. Salame argued that he had worked out a deal with the Department of Justice that would spare Bond, with whom he has an infant son, of campaign finance charges. Prosecutors denied the claim. Bond was then charged with three criminal counts and faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.
The Bond charges underscore how FTX executives’ prodigious—and illegal—contributions to political candidates remain a lingering thread. During the past two election cycles, FTX and its top staff were among the top donors in D.C., with prosecutors arguing that they used customer funds and operated illegal straw donor schemes to funnel donations through third parties.
Because of extradition complications from the Bahamas, Bankman-Fried did not face campaign finance charges at his trial, and prosecutors dropped a second case against him after a judge sentenced him to 25 years in prison last November. Instead, Salame became a poster child for the violations, and soon Bond was wrapped up in the case, illustrating that prosecutors are still digging into the sprawling network.
In their indictment, prosecutors argued that Bond and Salame had orchestrated a “sham consulting” agreement worth $400,000, which Bond then used to finance a failed congressional campaign.
While Bond’s case is ongoing, Salame is set to report to prison on Friday. He continued posting on X until the end. “Today I learned people still use LinkedIn,” he wrote on Thursday night, after his career update went viral.
