Bankman-Fried FTX lieutenant gets 7.5 years in prison, longer than what prosecution asked for
financialpost.comThe former chief executive of FTX’s Bahamas subsidiary was ordered to spend 7.5 years in prison, the first of Sam Bankman-Fried’s close associates to be sentenced in the wake of the cryptocurrency exchange’s implosion.
Ryan Salame appeared in a Manhattan courtroom Tuesday, after reaching a plea deal with federal prosecutors in September, weeks before FTX’s founder Bankman-Fried was due to stand trial for stealing about US$10 billion from customers, investors and lenders.
The prison term is more than prosecutors had asked for. The government said Salame, who pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance laws and operating an unlicensed money transmitter, deserved five to seven years behind bars, compared to the 18 month or less the defence advocated for.
The sentence could indicate how tough Judge Lewis A. Kaplan is inclined to be with the former FTX executives who were by Bankman-Fried’s side as his crypto empire rose to dizzying heights before crashing in late 2022.
Salame’s lawyers have tried to distance the 30-year-old from the yearslong fraud that took place at the crypto exchange, arguing he was as shocked as anyone.
“And he was duped, as was everyone else, into believing that the companies were legitimate, solvent and wildly profitable,” his attorneys wrote in a memo filed in court ahead of sentencing.
Prosecutors and the defence have offered contrasting portrayals of the accountant turned crypto whiz, from someone who helped commit one of the largest campaign finance offences in U.S. history to a low-key family man who raised money for charity in his spare time.
The government’s case against Bankman-Fried was supported by three key cooperating witnesses — former FTX co-founder Gary Wang, chief engineer Nishad Singh
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