FTX straw donor Ryan Salame’s sentencing slated for May 28

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Ryan Salame, a previous FTX executive, is set to receive a prison term on May 28 after admitting guilt in September of the previous year.

In the Southern District of New York, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan is set to determine the length of Salame’s prison sentence for illegally donating funds at the behest of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, in violation of political campaign finance laws.

Salame confessed to conspiring in the operation of an unlicensed money transfer business at Alameda Research, as stated by federal prosecutors. It is alleged that Salame served as a proxy donor for Bankman-Fried’s political advocacy efforts and made over 300 contributions to various US political campaigns.

FTX execs await sentencing

According to court records, May 1st was originally scheduled for Salame’s sentencing hearing. However, the cause behind this change remains uncertain. Similarly, other associates of Bankman-Fried such as FTX co-founder Gary Wang, former CEO of Alameda Research Caroline Ellison, and ex-lead engineer Nishad Singh are yet to have their sentencing hearings scheduled.

In their tenure under Bankman-Fried’s leadership, all of them admitted to wrongdoings and entered plea bargains, subsequently serving as prosecution witnesses. Concurrently, Bankman-Fried himself faced and was convicted on seven criminal charges, including fraud, in the previous year.

In a court ruling, Judge Kaplan imposed a 25-year prison term on Bankman-Fried and mandated the return of more than $8 billion – funds that had been ill-gotten from his businesses.

In other places, bankruptcy administrators led by new CEO John J. Ray III are still working to retrieve assets and finances to pay back the debts owed to over 36,000 creditors. These crypto exchanges currently face a significant debt of approximately $16 billion.

Ray and his team aim to repay 90% of regained funds to their creditors. According to the latest report, the estate had approximately $7 billion to $9 billion on hand last year to make up for the financial gap caused by Bankman-Fried.

The company has gotten rid of some of its assets, including its stake in Anthropic, $2 billion worth of Grayscale GBTC shares, and discounted Solana (SOL) tokens, to generate cash. But, those with claims against the firm are unhappy about the company’s choice to return the value of these assets as they were assessed at the time of bankruptcy filing in November 2022.

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2024-04-10 21:41