Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating Ryan Salame, a former co-chief executive of FTX’s Bahamas-based unit, for potential violations of campaign finance law related to his girlfriend’s congressional campaign last year. According to the Wall Street Journal, Salame is being looked into for possibly illegally avoiding federal limits on contributions to Michelle Bond’s campaign for the Republican primary for New York’s 1st congressional district.
At the time of Bond’s campaign, she was CEO of a trade group called the Association for Digital Asset Markets and also worked as a $200,000-a-year consultant for FTX, according to a congressional financial disclosure statement. The investigation concerning Salame is being treated separately from that into FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, which includes campaign finance law violations as well as fraud and conspiracy.
Salame has not been charged in the FTX case, but he has previously been identified by the Wall Street Journal as an unnamed co-conspirator cited in Bankman-Fried’s indictment who allegedly took part in a campaign-finance plot unrelated to Bond. Bankman-Fried is due to face trial in New York in October following the dramatic collapse of the exchange last November.