COURT DOCUMENT: Former FTX executive Ryan Salame says U.S. government went back on plea deal

According to a recent court filing, lawyers for former FTX executive Ryan Salame, who was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison, are asking the court to enforce a plea deal between Salame and the U.S. government, CoinDesk reports.Salame's agreement with the government calls for the government to either stop the investigation into his partner Michelle Bond (Bond is a Republican U.S. congressional candidate who is now the CEO of a fintech think tank), or require the U.S. government to vacate his conviction. Manhattan federal prosecutors are investigating Bond for alleged campaign finance violations related to contributions Salame and others made to her 2022 congressional campaign.

Salame pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations in September 2023, CoinDesk reported at the time.In May, Salame was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison for campaign finance violations and running an unauthorized money transmission business. Now, Salame's attorneys argue that his guilty plea was prompted by prosecutors' promise to protect Bond, the child's mother, from further legal scrutiny.Salame's attorneys argue in the filing that “despite Salame's cooperation, the government has failed to honor its implied promise not to bring campaign finance charges against Bond. ” The filing states that federal prosecutors “used plea negotiations to threaten Michelle Bond, Salame's common-law partner and the mother of his children,” and that the government said it would “cease its investigation of Bond if Salame pleaded guilty.” Salame's lawyers are now asking the court to either honor the government's initial promise to drop the Bond investigation or to vacate Salame's conviction altogether. The document states, “Salame is entitled to have the government honor its commitment by withdrawing the petition or obtaining an order directing specific performance.”