United States prosecutors have reportedly linked Ryan Salame, FTX Digital Markets’ former co-CEO, to a Chinese bribery scandal involving Alameda Research.
While trying to unfreeze some FTX and Alameda Research accounts, Salame used the names of persons identified as Thai prostitutes to open accounts. This comes amid Salame’s campaign finance violation charges and his 90-month jail sentence.
Former FTX Co-CEO at Crosshairs with US Attorneys
In a September 5 filing in a US District Court in New York, US Attorneys opposed Salame’s petition to retract his guilty plea over campaign finance violation charges.
The ex-FTX co-CEO retracted his petition to vacate the guilty plea on August 29. However, Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered both parties to appear in court on September 12 to address the issue at a hearing.
In their motion to block Salame’s petition to vacate the guilty plea, the prosecutors outlined some allegations. Among them is his involvement in Alameda Researche’s bribery scandal in China.
The Attorneys described Salame’s petition as shameless and self-serving. They said the move was procedurally defective and lacked legal and factual merit.
The former FTX exec had filed the petition after the authorities said they would investigate his partner, Michelle Bond.
The September 5 filing noted that the timing of the petition shows its lack of merit and obvious insincerity. According to the prosecutors, Salame had already accepted full responsibility for his actions even before the sentencing.
However, he later shifted his stance, resorting to incomplete, inaccurate, and false assertions to evade the sentence. The prosecutors believe the former FTX co-CEO’s petition is a move to avoid the sentencing for his involvement in a massive unlawful campaign finance scheme.
Salame was accused of aiding former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried in illegally donating money to political campaigns. The prosecutors said he funnelled billions of dollars through an unregistered money-transmitting business.
Meanwhile, Michelle Bond faces charges of campaign finance law violation. In 2022, Bond contested for a seat in the United States House of Reps under the Republican Party.
Salame said he planned to discuss his plea deal in Bond’s criminal case. The duo is currently free on bail pending the case’s conclusion and sentencing.
Alameda’s Chinese Bribery Scandal
The prosecutors’ recent filing referenced notes from a 2023 conference call with Assistant United States Attorneys concerning former FTX CEO Bankman-Fried’s alleged bribery in China.
Sam Bankman-Fried allegedly bribed some Chinese officials to unfreeze accounts linked to Alameda Research in local crypto exchanges.
The US prosecutors asserted that Salame participated in the bribery scheme by using the names of Thai prostitutes to open accounts. Caroline Ellison, former Alameda CEO, mentioned this in her testimony during Bankman-Fried’s trial.
Ellison said Alameda paid a $150 million bribe to Chinese officials in 2021 to unblock $1 billion in funds frozen in OKX and Huobi accounts. The notes stated that Salame might have affected the funds’ unfreezing.
The prosecutors said: “We have evidence that [Salame] was involved in efforts to unfreeze the accounts, including by opening crypto accounts to enable self-trading. Our understanding is that he used the [Personally Identifiable Information] of people he identified as Thai prostitutes to open the accounts.”
Salame pleaded guilty to participating in campaign finance fraud and conspiring to operate an unregistered money-transmitting business. In May this year, a federal judge sentenced him to 7.5 years in prison. He is expected to report on October 13.
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