Former FTX executive sentenced to 90 months in prison

A former executive of the defunct cryptocurrency exchange platform FTX was sentenced to 90 months in prison, the US Justice Department announced Tuesday.

Ryan Salame, 30, was a high-ranking official at FTX-related hedge fund Alameda Research from 2019 to 2021, while he was named co-CEO of FTX's Bahamian affiliate FTX Digital Markets Ltd. in October 2021, it said in a statement.

While working at Alameda Research and FTX, he conspired with FTX's founder and former CEO Samuel Bankman-Fried and other employees to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business, unlawfully using FTX, Alameda Research, and an entity called North Dimension to transmit FTX customer funds without a license, it added.

The conspirators and others at Alameda Research and FTX also made false statements to US banks in order to maintain their unlawful businesses, it noted.

In addition to the prison term, Salame was sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay more than $6 million in forfeiture and more than $5 million in restitution.

"Ryan Salame agreed to advance the interests of FTX, Alameda Research, and his co-conspirators through an unlawful political influence campaign and through an unlicensed money transmitting business, which helped FTX grow faster and larger by operating outside of the law," said Damian Williams, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

"Salame's involvement in two serious federal crimes undermined public trust in American elections and the integrity of the financial system. Today's sentence underscores the substantial consequences for such offences," he added.

Bankman-Fried in March was sentenced to 25 years in prison in a fraud and conspiracy case that saw the collapse of FTX, once the world's third-largest crypto trading platform by daily volume.

While he was ordered a forfeiture of $11.2 billion, Bankman-Fried was also convicted on seven counts in November by jury who held him responsible for approximately $10 billion of customer deposits that went missing in 2022.