- Ryan Salame has withdrawn his legal request to enforce his plea deal or vacate his sentence
- He has alleged that prosecutors broke a promise to stop investigating Michelle Bond if he pleaded guilty
- Salame has withdrawn his petition after Bond was charged with using FTX funds for her political campaign
Ryan Salame, the former FTX executive who was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison in May, has withdrawn a legal request asking a New York court to enforce the conditions of his plea deal or to vacate his sentence. Salame recently filed a petition alleging that prosecutors reneged on a deal to cease their investigations into Michelle Bond, his long-time partner, if he agreed to plead guilty. Bond was charged last week with using FTX money for a failed political campaign, leading to Salame’s action, which he has now withdrawn.
Bond Investigation Key to Salame’s Plea
In his original petition, Salame claimed that prosecutors had pressured him by threatening Bond, implying they would “discontinue investigating Bond if Salame pleaded guilty.” Bond, a former US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawyer and leader of a crypto advocacy group in Washington, D.C., was indicted on August 22 for allegedly receiving illegal campaign contributions from Salame and other FTX employees during her unsuccessful 2022 Congressional campaign.
She appeared in court in the Southern District of New York the same day and was released on a $1 million bond. She faces four charges related to alleged campaign finance violations, including conspiracy and accepting unlawful political contributions.
Salame’s petition came just one day before federal charges against Bond were publicly announced, with the former FTX man claiming that prosecutors had backtracked on their promise, which was part of the reason for his guilty plea.
Salame Stands by Allegations
Salame’s lawyers clarified in the new court documents that he still stands by the facts outlined in the petition but has chosen to withdraw it to allow Bond to develop the case further in her own defense. They noted that since the primary goal of the petition was to dismiss the indictment against Bond, it is more appropriate for these issues to be adjudicated in Bond’s ongoing case.
Despite Salame’s motion to withdraw his petition, Judge Lewis Kaplan has decided to proceed with a hearing on the original petition. The judge has also made Salame’s attendance at this hearing a condition of his bail.
In May, Salame pleaded guilty to charges of election fraud and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business during his tenure at the cryptocurrency exchange, a decision that prevented his term from being more than a decade.
