On September 12, 2024, former FTX senior executive Ryan Salame outside the U.S. District Court in Manhattan
Mackenzie Sigalos | Mackenzie Sigalos CNBC
On Thursday, an angry federal judge threatened unspecified sanctions against the former officials. Fortis managers Ryan Salam Lied to him last year when he pleaded guilty arrive campaign finance and money spread crime.
Salam admitted during a hearing Thursday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan that he lied to Judge Lewis Kaplan during his plea hearing, saying federal prosecutors made no promises to him to induce his guilt. plead.
Salaam now claims prosecutors promised him through his then-lawyer that they would drop the criminal investigation into his romantic partner Michelle Bond If he pleads guilty in the case.
“You asked me to uphold a conviction and sentence that I now know was based on false testimony I provided in my plea statement,” Kaplan told Salaam on Thursday.
“This could be a big problem,” the judge told Salaam, who had previously sentenced The sentence of 7.5 years in prison was several months more than the maximum sentence prosecutors had sought.
Kaplan said several times during the hearing that Salaam “induced” him to accept the guilty plea and was visibly annoyed with the defendant.
Salaam and other federal criminal defendants must testify truthfully at plea hearings and disclose whether promises or offers were made in exchange for a guilty plea.
Kaplan told Salaam, his attorney and prosecutors that he would take some time to think about what to do.
He said sanctions could be imposed on Salame, who was the leader of FTX, the failed cryptocurrency exchange founded by convicted fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried.
Salaam’s attorney declined to comment to CNBC after the hearing.
On Thursday, the judge also said Salam now has until October 11 to surrender to prison after officials realized the previous surrender date of October 13 would have been Sunday.
Michelle Bond, CEO of Digital Futures.
CNBC
Last month, Salaam’s lawyers asked Kaplan to drop his lawsuit Plea guilty in 2023 Claims prosecutors failed to live up to their end of the bargain.
Salam’s lawyer charged August court documents The investigation into Bond continued despite the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office promising Salaam in April 2023 that they would stop investigating his common-law partner, Bond, for campaign finance violations if he agreed to the arrangement.
Defense attorneys asked Kaplan to withdraw Salam’s guilty plea on this basis.
The day after filing the documents, Bond sued She was indicted in Manhattan federal court on campaign finance charges related to her unsuccessful 2022 bid for Congress.
The indictment accuses Salam of conspiring with Bond and alleging that he arranged for FTX to make payments to Bond.
The indictment states that Salamee allegedly wired hundreds of thousands of dollars to Bond’s personal bank account between June and August 2022 to illegally fund her campaign.
Days after Bond was charged, Salam filed a motion seeking to waive his request to withdraw his guilty plea.
Kaplan later ordered him to attend a hearing Thursday to review his charges.
Salam reiterated during the hearing that he was no longer seeking to have his guilty plea invalidated.
