Ryan Salame
Co-CEO of FTX's Bahamian subsidiary (FTX Digital Markets) and a top lieutenant of Sam Bankman-Fried. He pleaded guilty in 2023 to campaign-finance and unlicensed-money-transmitting conspiracies and was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison.
Also known as: Ryan Salame
Bio
Ryan Salame was co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, FTX's Bahamas-based subsidiary, and a close lieutenant of Sam Bankman-Fried. He used FTX-related funds to become a major U.S. political donor (founding the American Dream Federal Action super PAC). [1][2]
Legal outcome
In September 2023 Salame pleaded guilty to conspiracy to make unlawful political contributions / defraud the FEC and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business. On May 28, 2024 he was sentenced to 90 months (7.5 years) — the first of SBF's inner circle to be sentenced — plus $6M+ forfeiture and $5M+ restitution. [1][2]
Bracketed numbers refer to the numbered sources listed below.
Linked scams & cases
Sources (2)
See also
- Blockchain Terminal (BCT)TokensA 2017–2018 ICO (BCT tokens, ~$30M) for a 'Blockchain Terminal' — a Bloomberg-style crypto trading terminal. The SEC and DOJ said convicted ex-hedge-funder Boaz Manor secretly ran it under a fake identity ('Shaun MacDonald'), using associate Edith Pardo as a front, and lied about the product's adoption.
- Dropil (DROP)TokensAn ICO for the DROP token built around a fake 'Dex' trading bot. The SEC said it raised ~$1.9M while claiming $54M from 34,000 investors, and that the founders falsified evidence during the probe. Founders Jeremy McAlpine and Zachary Matar pleaded guilty to securities fraud (36 and 30 months).
- CluCoin (CLU)Tokens
This page was last updated on Jun 8, 2026. View revision history.