Former FTX executive Ryan Salame was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison on Tuesday, making him the latest leader of the fallen cryptocurrency exchange to land behind bars for his role in its downfall. But the news isn't all bad for Salame.
While the one-time lieutenant to FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) and co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets Ltd. was braced for a years-long prison sentence—delivered in a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday—federal prosecutors said Salame can hold onto a luxury car he purchased amid FTX’s meteoric rise before the ruling.
The value of his 2021 Porsche 911 Turbo S does “not have sufficient equity to further pursue forfeiture,” the government said in a filing, arguing Salame should be required to pay the vehicle’s maintenance cost of $1,500. Previously, Salame agreed to forfeit $1.5 billion worth of assets in connection to FTX-related crimes.
Weeks before Bankman-Fried’s trial began—in which the former crypto mogul was found guilty of stealing $10 billion from customers, investors, and lenders—Salame struck a plea deal. He pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance law and operating an unlicensed money transmitter business last September. With U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan deciding his fate, other former SBF associates are now waiting in the wings.
Earlier this month, the government requested that Salame be sentenced to five to seven years in prison, citing the “serious crimes'' he committed at FTX. But Salame’s attorneys had argued that’s far too harsh a sentence for the former CEO of FTX’s Bahamas subsidiary. They have said he should serve 18 months for his misconduct.
Salame’s lawyers claim that their client was “duped” by Bankman-Fried into thinking FTX was stable. Yet prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum that Salame yanked over $5 million worth of crypto from FTX as the exchange buckled under a bevy of customer withdrawals in November 2022—just before it declared bankruptcy and shut down.
Though Salame made efforts to cooperate with the government, prosecutors described his interactions as “relatively minor” compared to other FTX insiders.
“Ryan Salame agreed to advance the interests of FTX, Alameda Research, and his co-conspirators through an unlawful political influence campaign and through an unlicensed money transmitting business, which helped FTX grow faster and larger by operating outside of the law," said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams in a statement Tuesday, following the sentencing.
Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison, chief engineer Nishad Singh, and FTX co-founder Gary Wang all took the stand to testify against Bankman-Fried, but Salame never entered into a formal cooperation process with the government. He also never met with prosecutors himself.
Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years behind bars in March, but some co-conspirators, who pleaded guilty to crimes in connection with FTX’s implosion, anticipate a lighter touch. Ellison, Singh, and Wang could be sentenced sometime this year by Judge Kaplan.
For Salame, his Porsche is likely connected to good times. Manufactured in Stuttgart, Germany, Salame purchased his Porsche 911 for $285,000 in October 2021—that same month that FTX touted a $420,690,000 Series B-1 fundraise, lifting the ill-fated exchange to a $25 billion valuation.
Featuring a long list of luxury, aesthetic, and performance-based modifications—such as a heated steering wheel with matte, carbon fiber trim—the car could still be there the next time Salame hits the road a few years down the line
Edited by Andrew Hayward