isn’t all bad for Salame.While the one-time lieutenant to FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) and co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets Ltd. was braced for a years-long prison sentence—delivered in a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday—federal prosecutors said Salame can hold onto a luxury car he purchased amid FTX’s meteoric rise before the ruling. The value of his 2021 Porsche 911 Turbo S does “not have sufficient equity to further pursue forfeiture,” the government said in a Weeks before Bankman-Fried’s trial began—in which the former crypto mogul was found guilty of stealing $10 billion from customers, investors, and lenders—Salame struck a plea deal. Earlier this month, the government requested that Salame be sentenced to five to seven years in prison, citing the “serious crimes” he committed at FTX. But Salame’s attorneys had argued that’s far too harsh a sentence for the former CEO of FTX’s Bahamas subsidiary. They have said he should serve 18 months for his misconduct.Salame’s lawyers claim that their client was “duped” by Bankman-Fried into thinking FTX was stable. Yet prosecutors argued in a Though Salame made efforts to cooperate with the government, prosecutors described his interactions as “relatively minor” compared to other FTX insiders. “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 U.S. Attorney Damian Williams in a statement Tuesday, following the sentencing.Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison, chief engineer Nishad Singh, and FTX co-founder Gary Wang all took the stand to testify against Bankman-Fried, but Salame never entered into a formal cooperation process with the government. He also never met with prosecutors himself.Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years behind bars in March, but some co-conspirators, who pleaded guilty to crimes in connection with FTX’s implosion, anticipate a lighter touch. Ellison, Singh, and Wang could be sentenced sometime this year by Judge Kaplan.For Salame, his Porsche is likely connected to good times. Manufactured in Stuttgart, Germany, Salame Featuring a Edited by Andrew Hayward
