U.S. prosecutors are recommending a prison term of five to seven years for former FTX executive Ryan Salame, who pleaded guilty to criminal charges last September.
Salame managed wire deposits and fiat currency conversions for FTX customers, participated in political contributions using Alameda funds, and led charitable initiatives in The Bahamas. His attorneys argue that his involvement was primarily operational rather than central to the fraud perpetrated by the key figures at FTX and Alameda.
While Salame’s lawyers have urged the court for a lenient sentence of no more than 18 months, prosecutors said in a sentencing memo released on Tuesday that a significant term of incarceration is necessary. They argued that a sentence well above the requested 18 months is warranted.
“The defendant’s assertion that his crimes were intended only to help FTX and the cryptocurrency industry more generally are not mitigating and also belied by the evidence, which indicates that the defendant personally benefited in numerous ways from his criminal actions,” the prosecutors wrote.
“Only a substantial incarceratory sentence could appropriately reflect the nature and seriousness of his conduct and afford adequate deterrence,” they added.
Salame’s sentencing is scheduled for May 28 in a New York courtroom. He was a high-ranking executive at Alameda Research and then at FTX.com from 2019 to 2022, according to the memo.
Salame’s attorneys argue that he did not play a central role in the fraudulent activities that led to the collapse of FTX and that he lost much of his personal fortune when the cryptocurrency exchange filed for bankruptcy in November 2022. He also agreed to forfeit $1.5 billion.
Prosecutors asserted that Salame committed serious crimes to “foster the growth of FTX and burnish Bankman-Fried’s image.” They highlighted that the campaign finance offense was one of the largest-ever in American history and that the unlicensed money transmitting business exchanged more than $1 billion without proper supervision.
Former Alameda-FTX executives, including CEO Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang, have also pleaded guilty to charges and are negotiating plea deals to avoid jail time.
