Ryan Salame, former co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, said the United States government has unfairly targeted him because he supported the Republican Party.
Salame appeared on a Tucker Carlson Show episode released on Oct. 10, a day after the former FTX executive requested that a judge delay his self-surrender date by about two months on medical grounds.
Speaking to Carlson, Salame claimed he was wrongly charged with “campaign finance violations” for donating to the Republican Party. He said his convicted colleagues, including former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, who he said “helped get Biden elected,” were never charged with similar violations:
“Correct me if I’m wrong here. You have Sam Bankman-Fried, who’s in prison for a long time, but he’s not been charged with any campaign finance violations. He gave it to Democrats.”
Salame has not been charged with any crimes related to the collapse of the crypto exchange FTX. Instead, he faces campaign finance violations stemming from borrowing money from Alameda Research for political contributions. Salame said he donated between $20 million and $30 million to Republican candidates.
Donated funds acquired illegally
Salame’s lawyers had previously advised him that the borrowed funds he donated were legal. However, he was accused of orchestrating a straw donor scheme by illegally using company money to make political contributions in the names of others.
Former FTX executive Ryan Salame on the Tucker Carlson Show. Source: The Tucker Carlson Show
He also questioned the validity of a second charge against him related to operating without a money-transmitting license.
Salame noted that Bankman-Fried donated about $60 million to $70 million to Democratic candidates during the 2020 election cycle.
Salame claimed he was pressured into pleading guilty by federal prosecutors, who threatened to investigate his child’s mother:
“They told me that if I pled guilty to these two crimes, they would not pursue my loved ones and look at anything that they had done or investigating them.”
Using family members as leverage
Salame said he pleaded guilty to the charges on the condition that authorities would not involve his family in the investigations. Now, he claims the government broke that agreement:
“Because the government has now continued to pursue the mother of my child, despite saying that they wouldn’t if I pled guilty. So I’m going to use that in an attempt an appeal.”
Salame emphasized that none of Bankman-Fried’s family members have faced legal consequences despite their involvement with the convicted entrepreneur.
Salame has spent about $6 million on legal fees and claims the American justice system prioritizes convictions over truth.
Related: No, FTX distribution payments do not begin on Sept. 30
On Oct. 9, former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison agreed to settle her case with FTX by turning over “substantially all of her assets.”
In a motion filed on Oct. 7, Ellison agreed to transfer any assets not forfeited to the government in her criminal case or used for legal fees to FTX creditors.
The motion noted that once she meets the terms, “Ellison will have no remaining assets other than certain physical personal property,” without specifying the value of the assets she would forfeit.
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