After several legal attempts to delay reporting to prison for a seven-and-a-half-year sentence, former FTX Digital Markets co-CEO Ryan Salame will likely be behind bars by the end of the day on Oct. 11.
In an Oct. 10 filing in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Judge Lewis Kaplan denied Salame’s request to begin serving his sentence on Dec. 7 rather than in October.
The former FTX executive claimed there were medical reasons for him to remain a free man for two additional months, but Judge Kaplan cited previous attempts at delays and Salame’s recent behavior.
Source: SDNY
US Attorneys argued that the former FTX executive “appeared physically recovered” during a Sept. 12 hearing and took the time to appear on the talk show Tucker Carlson Tonight for an interview. Judge Kaplan said if Salame required any medical treatment after a dog bite that he claimed happened in June, it could be provided by the Bureau of Prisons during his incarceration.
“Defendant already has benefitted from extremely generous postponements of the commencement of the term of imprisonment warranted by the serious nature of the crime he committed and the other relevant conduct,” said Judge Kaplan.
Wearing stripes and updating his LinkedIn
As of Oct. 11, Salame appeared to have accepted that he would report as ordered following the eleventh-hour request. He changed the picture on his X profile to himself in prison garb — possibly from a Halloween costume — and updated his LinkedIn profile to include a role as an “inmate” at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Cumberland.
Source: Ryan Salame
Salame will be the second individual involved in FTX’s downfall to enter the US prison system. In March, Judge Kaplan sentenced former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried to 25 years. Caroline Ellison, former CEO of Alameda Research, was sentenced to two years in prison in September. She is expected to report by Nov. 7.
At the time of publication, it did not appear as though any of the FTX and Alameda executives would be serving time in the same facilities. Bankman-Fried is housed in a New York facility as his legal team handles an appeal, Salame’s prison is in Maryland, and Ellison will likely be going to a Boston-area correctional institution.
After being sentenced in May 2024, Salame has been the only individual named in the FTX indictment to regularly post on social media. He has made several claims about his legal situation and that of Ellison without providing evidence and suggested that prison would be an “exciting” experience.
Related: Judge questions if ex-FTX exec perjured himself in guilty plea
Salame’s partner, Michelle Bond, with whom he has a child, also faces charges related to campaign finance violations related to her run for a seat in the US House of Representatives in 2022. She pleaded not guilty and was free on bail at the time of publication. Salame attended her hearing in New York.
The FTX saga in the courts, both civil and criminal, appeared to be winding down after roughly two years. On Oct. 7, a bankruptcy judge approved FTX debtors’ reorganization plan for the exchange, paving the way for users and creditors to be repaid.
Nishad Singh and Gary Wang — former FTX executives who pleaded guilty to charges — are scheduled for sentencing on Oct. 30 and Nov. 20, respectively. Like Bankman-Fried, Ellison and Salame, both potentially face years in prison.
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