Former FTX Executive Faces Sentencing: Prosecutors Demand Lengthy Incarceration

Former FTX Executive Faces Sentencing: Prosecutors Demand Lengthy Incarceration

U.S. prosecutors are calling for a substantial prison sentence for Ryan Salame, a former executive at FTX and close associate of FTX co-founder Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried. They argue that Salame should serve five to seven years for his role in the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange.

On May 21, federal prosecutors submitted a sentencing memorandum to a Manhattan federal court, advocating for a stringent sentence following Salame’s guilty plea to serious charges involving the misappropriation of FTX investors’ funds. In contrast, Salame’s defense team is pushing for a maximum of 18 months of imprisonment.

The prosecutors emphasized the gravity of Salame’s offenses, noting: “The campaign finance offense is one of the largest-ever in American history, and the unlicensed money transmitting business exchanged more than $1 billion without proper supervision.”

Salame is scheduled for sentencing on May 28, having admitted to aiding SBF in misappropriating $10 billion in user funds. Prosecutors argued, “Only a meaningful period of incarceration could adequately deter the defendant and others and promote respect for the law.”

Previously, on April 1, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York sentenced SBF to 25 years in prison after he was found guilty on seven felony charges. Salame will be the first of SBF’s accomplices to be sentenced. Salame began his career at Alameda Research in Hong Kong in 2019 and eventually became the CEO of FTX Digital Markets, an FTX subsidiary based in the Bahamas.

Other key figures involved in the FTX scandal, including Caroline Ellison, Nishad Singh, and Gary Wang, are still awaiting their sentences.

In response to the FTX debacle, several U.S. lawmakers are backing legislation aimed at clarifying the roles of financial regulators concerning digital assets. Representative Wiley Nickel of North Carolina urged support for the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century (FIT21) Act, which seeks to delineate the regulatory responsibilities of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to prevent future incidents similar to FTX.