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Ex-FTX Executive Ryan Salame To Forfeit $1.5 Billion As Part of Guilty Plea - Slashdot

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Bitcoin Crime The Courts

Ex-FTX Executive Ryan Salame To Forfeit $1.5 Billion As Part of Guilty Plea (coindesk.com) 21

Ryan Salame, a top FTX executive who played a key role in the exchange's political fundraising operations, will forfeit $1.5 billion after pleading guilty on Thursday to federal criminal charges tied to the exchange. CoinDesk reports: Salame, who was co-CEO of FTX's Bahamas entity FTX Digital Markets, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to make unlawful contributions and defraud the Federal Election Commission and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transferring business. "I made political contributions in my name that were funded by transfers from an Alameda subsidiary," Salame told Judge Lewis Kaplan, who is also overseeing Bankman-Fried's trial, as he entered his guilty plea. The transfers were "categorized as loans," Salame said, but "it was understood that the would not be repaid." The donations, according to Salame, "were for the benefit of initiatives introduced by others but supported by Sam Bankman-Fried."

As part of his plea agreement with the government, Salame has been ordered to forfeit more than $1.5 billion dollars. He agreed to forfeit $6 million before his sentencing, expected in March of next year. To help cover this amount, Salame has already agreed to give the government a "2021 Porsche automobile" and multiple properties, including two Massachusetts homes and ownership of the East Rood Farm Corporation, an entity Salame owns. Additionally, Salame was ordered to pay more than $5.5 million in restitution to FTX debtors. According to a DOJ document (PDF), the $1.5 billion Salame will forfeit represents "property involved in" the unlicensed money transmitter charge.

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Ex-FTX Executive Ryan Salame To Forfeit $1.5 Billion As Part of Guilty Plea

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  • by Arethan ( 223197 ) on Thursday September 07, 2023 @09:48PM (#63831152) Journal

    How much did he still keep?

    • He keeps whatever net worth he had before working for FTX, minus $6 in restitution. He forfeits everything he received or earned while at FTX.

      • by chiguy ( 522222 )

        So he forfeits his ill-gotten gains but is otherwise not penalized?

        • If I'm reading TFS correctly, these two forfeitures totaling $1,506,000,000 are being made BEFORE his conviction/sentencing, there's no reason to believe these two forfeitures are the sum total of all fines & penalties he will get. I suspect these forfeitures are part of a strategy to show contrition and hopefully get a lighter sentence, but that's just a guess.

          • EDIT: -I read it wrong, apologies - I blame an inadequate amount of caffeine before commenting. I missed this very clear explaination:

            As part of his plea agreement with the government, Salame has been ordered to forfeit more than $1.5 billion dollars. He agreed to forfeit $6 million before his sentencing, expected in March of next year.

            I think I mis-read the last sentence as referring to all forfeitures, not just the initial $6M forfeiture.

            Apologies.

      • by mysidia ( 191772 )

        What's odd here is the restitution amount is so low. FTX certainly defrauded people out of a lot more than that.
        They have a $8.9 billion deficit, and a measly $6 Million is not going to make the customers whole... They should be allocating the whole 1.6 Billion to restitution, Not 0.3% of the amount.

        • Except that very little of that is real money or in real assets that can be sold. Much of it was hype, and that hype dried up. It's Schroedinger's Money, it's value is both $0 and $50billion at the same time, and the actual value is unknown until the box is opened. So what he is forfeiting is stuff he bought while he was able to buy it, and money that he converted or borrowed while there was actual income. After all even with regular securities you have to tell them in order to buy other stuff; and with

  • by VeryFluffyBunny ( 5037285 ) on Friday September 08, 2023 @04:27AM (#63831672)
    So they were trading play money while keeping the profits as real money in secret trusts in the Bahamas, which are "financial instruments" used to hide ownership & therefore tax liabilities. The City of London & the UK's overseas territories hide 40% of the world's dark money & assets in this way (Far more effective than Switzerland's secret banking). Why not put Salame in prison for tax evasion?

    That's a rhetorical question because a lot of our elected representatives & their families also use secret trusts to hide their money & assets & evade taxes. They don't want to open that particular can of worms. Secret trusts effectively drive financialisation (See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]) which is why the cost of living it getting higher while wages are stagnating &/or going down & job security is vanishing.
  • That's the difference between poor people and upstarts, and old money: the gov is on their side.

    SBF and RS failed to play the rigged game properly and $upport enough politicians with their ill-got gains.

    That, in itself, is another kind of stupidity that cannot be ameliorated by inordinate logical intelligence alone.

    This is why those sort of people must have a support team of PR, legal, and accountants to make sure their image is managed correctly, they don't wake up the government dragon, and they ac

  • With multibillionaire criminals, we really need to stop talking about what they are fined, and instead what they are left with.

    Plus "forfeiting" $1.5 bn in property or whatever, you can almost guarantee it's a) vastly overvalued, and b) will not sell for that at whatever govt auction it's headed to.

  • by kenh ( 9056 )

    To help cover this amount, Salame has already agreed to give the government a "2021 Porsche automobile" and multiple properties, including two Massachusetts homes and ownership of the East Rood Farm Corporation, an entity Salame owns.

    They are taking his 2021 Porsche automobile! What a silly detail to include when talking about $6M in forfeitures...

    • by youn ( 1516637 )

      Depends on the Porsche, some sell new in the 100s of thousand new, before options.... and appreciate with time.

      While it's not all the money, 300k-500k is not nothing.

      It's not rare to have rare item double, triple value over time. Some Collectible items have been sold upward of 15 million dollars

      so yeah, it's not the whole value but it's not nothing either compared to $6M

  • by Anonymous Coward
    These donations were almost entire to conservative causes. [opensecrets.org]

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