The former FTX Digital Markets co-CEO pleaded guilty to two felonies and was one of the only figures connected with the defunct crypto exchange who didn’t testify at SBF’s trial.
Lawyers representing Ryan Salame have requested the former co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets be sentenced to no more than 18 months in prison.
In a May 14 filing with the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Salame’s legal team argued that in addition to the “substantial restitution and forfeiture obligations” offered by the former FTX executive, a sentence of no more than 18 months in prison was “appropriate.” Salame pleaded guilty to conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business and engaging in campaign finance fraud in September 2023 and is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Lewis Kaplan on May 28.
“[Salame] had absolutely no knowledge that the four people at the center of Alameda and FTX had conspired to lie and steal from their customers,” his lawyers claimed in the May 14 sentencing memo. “Ryan stole from no one. He did not lie to customers. And he was duped, as was everyone else, into believing that the companies were legitimate, solvent, and wildly profitable.”
