Michelle Bond, CEO Digital Futures.
CNBC
Former FTX executive Ryan Salame’s domestic partner was convicted Michelle Bond has been indicted in New York on federal charges accusing her of conspiring to collect illegal campaign contributions from FTX for her unsuccessful 2022 bid for Congress, prosecutors announced Thursday.
Manhattan District Attorney Damian Williams alleges Bond, 45, illegally funded her campaign with a “bogus” $400,000 advance from FTX, followed by an annual $100,000 payment from the now-defunct crypto exchange.
Bond, who lives in Potomac, Maryland, was running for a House seat in New York’s 1st congressional district, which includes eastern Long Island.
Salame and Bond met in June 2021 and had a relationship early the following year, according to the indictment.
The indictment alleges that Salame, identified only as CC-1, conspired with Bond to commit the crimes, saying Salame arranged for the payment from FTX to Bond. She then allegedly used “almost entirely” all of that money “to fund her campaign illegally,” the indictment says.
Between June and August 2022, Salame allegedly wired hundreds of thousands of dollars to Bond’s personal bank account, which she then also funneled to illegally finance her campaign, according to the indictment.
The tetrameter indictment was unsealed a day after Salame, the father of Bond’s eight-month-old child, asked a New York federal judge to overturn his guilty pleas to campaign finance and money-trafficking crimes.
Salameh’s lawyers claim prosecutors reneged on a deal to drop their campaign finance investigation into Bond as an incentive to get him to plead guilty.
Bond was an attorney based in or near Washington, D.C., who, “at all times relevant to the indictment,” worked as the chief executive of a digital asset trading group, the indictment states. In June, Bond also announced the launch of Digital Future, a think tank “dedicated to driving the development of the next generation of the financial services industry,” according to a press release.
“The indictment includes a number of revealing text messages and emails that, when combined with bank records, paint a compelling picture that Bond attempted to circumvent campaign finance rules and cover up,” said Baker Botts partner, Sterling Marchand, who guides. clients regarding federal and state political and election law.
“Salame claims the government tacitly promised not to investigate Bond further. But the indictment today shows a very strong case against Bond — as I’m sure the government intended to convey,” Marchand continued.
She was released on a $1 million personal recognizance bond co-signed by another person and was seen leaving the courthouse in lower Manhattan hand-in-hand with Salame earlier Thursday afternoon.
Ryan Salame, the former co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, leaves Federal Court after pleading guilty to two counts, including conspiracy to make illegal U.S. political contributions, in New York, September 7, 2023.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Salame was not a cooperating witness in last year’s criminal trial of his former FTX boss Sam Bankman-Fried, who was sentenced in March to 25 years in prison for fraud and conspiracy.
The charges against Salameh stemmed from his involvement in a multi-million dollar campaign finance scheme during his tenure at FTX.
Salame is scheduled to begin serving a 7.5-year prison sentence on October 13. ordered to pay more than $6 million in forfeiture and more than $5 million in restitution.
Williams, the U.S. attorney, wrote separately to the judge in his criminal case Wednesday to ask the court to “reject Ryan Salame’s shameless and self-serving attempt to renege on his post-conviction guilty plea.”
Judge Lewis Kaplan set a hearing for Sept. 12 to hear arguments from both sides on whether to throw out the plea deal Salame made with prosecutors.
— CNBC’s Dan Mangan contributed to this report.
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