Image source, Getty Images
- author, Peter Hoskins
- role, Business reporter
One of FTX’s former executives has been jailed for his role in the cryptocurrency giant’s collapse in late 2022.
Federal prosecutors announced that Ryan Salameh, the co-CEO of FTX's Bahamas subsidiary, has been sentenced to 90 months in prison.
Salameh, who was a top executive of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange founder Sam Bankman Freed, pleaded guilty in September last year to violating the Political Funds Control Act and operating an illegal money transmitting business.
“Salameh's involvement in two serious federal crimes undermined public confidence in the integrity of our elections and financial systems,” Damien Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement.
Last November, a jury convicted Salameh on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy stemming from the collapse of FTX, in what prosecutors called one of the largest financial frauds in U.S. history.
Salameh's sentence was longer than the five to seven years sought by prosecutors.
In addition to his prison sentence, he was sentenced to three years' probation and ordered to pay more than $6 million in forfeiture and more than $5 million in restitution.
Salameh is one of four former CEOs of Bankman Freed's companies who have pleaded guilty to the charges, along with Alameda's former CEO Caroline Ellison, FTX's former technical chief Gary Wang and FTX's former engineering chief Nishad Singh.
Before its collapse, FTX was one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, making Bankman Freed a celebrity in the business and attracting millions of customers who used the platform to buy and trade cryptocurrencies.
In 2022, rumors of financial difficulties sparked a run on deposits, hastening the company's collapse and exposing Bankman Freed's crimes.
He was convicted last year of wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy and other charges by a New York jury after a trial that detailed how he used clients' money to buy real estate, make political contributions and make other investments.
