Ryan Salame (born ) is an American entrepreneur who operated an illegal money-transmitting business. He was the CEO of FTX Digital Markets, the

FTX FTX Trading Ltd., trading as FTX (Futures Exchange), is a bankrupt company that formerly operated a cryptocurrency exchange and crypto hedge fund. The exchange was founded in 2019 by Sam Bankman-Fried and Gary Wang and collapsed in 2022 after ...

subsidiary based in the Bahamas. He was the founder of the American Dream Federal Action

super PAC Independent expenditure-only political action committees, better known as super PACs, are a type of political action committee (PAC) in the United States. Unlike traditional PACs, super PACs are legally allowed to fundraise unlimited amounts of m ...

Early life and education

Salame grew up in

Sandisfield, Massachusetts Sandisfield is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 989 at the 2020 census. History Sandisfield was first settled in 1750 as Housatonic Towns ...

. He attended high school at

Monument Mountain Regional High School Great Barrington is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 7,172 at the 2020 census. Both a summer resort and home to Ski Butternut ...

in Great Barrington. He earned

Bachelor of Business Administration A Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) is an undergraduate degree in business administration awarded by colleges and universities after completion of four years and typically 120 credits of undergraduate study in the fundamentals of busine ...

in accounting from

Isenberg School of Management The Isenberg School of Management is the business school and also the second largest school at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the flagship campus for the University of Massachusetts system. The Isenberg School is accredited by the Asso ...

and also

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

in economics from the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a public land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts system and was founded in 1863 as the ...

in 2015. He later received a master's in finance from

McDonough School of Business The Robert Emmett McDonough School of Business, commonly shorted to the McDonough School of Business and abbreviated as the MSB, is the business school of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1957, it grants both undergraduate and ...

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...

in 2019.

Career

Salame worked briefly for

Ernst & Young EY, previously known as Ernst & Young, is a multinational corporation, multinational professional services partnership, network based in London, United Kingdom. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and PwC, it is one of the Big Four accounting firms, Big F ...

. In 2019, he started working for

Alameda Research Alameda Research was a cryptocurrency trading firm, co-founded in September 2017 by Sam Bankman-Fried and Tara MacAulay. In November 2022, FTX, Alameda's sister cryptocurrency exchange, experienced a solvency crisis, and both FTX and Alameda ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

. He later became co-chief of FTX Digital Markets, FTX's Bahamas unit. During the primaries of the

2022 United States elections Elections in the United States, Elections were held in the United States on November 8, 2022, with the exception of absentee balloting. During this U.S. midterm election, which occurred during the term of president Joe Biden, all 435 seats in ...

, Salame donated millions of dollars to Republican candidates. Salame invested over $6 million in

Lenox, Massachusetts Lenox is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The town is in Western Massachusetts and part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Pittsfield Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 5,095 at the 2020 United States census ...

restaurants and real estate. During the 2022 bankruptcy proceedings of FTX, it was revealed that the company loaned Salame $55 million. Salame’s girlfriend Michelle Bond received $400,000 in consulting fees from FTX Digital Markets. Salame claimed to have learned about the impending collapse of FTX in the week before it filed for bankruptcy and to have vomited upon hearing the news. In April 2023 the FBI raided Salame’s

Potomac, Maryland Potomac () is an Unincorporated area#United States, unincorporated community and census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it had a population of 47,018. It is named a ...

home. In September 2023, he pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance laws and operating an illegal money-transmitting business. He agreed to forfeit two properties in Lenox, MA and a

Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in luxury, high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Th ...

automobile, and pay a $6 million fine and more than $5 million in restitution to FTX. Despite prosecutors recommending a term of 5-7 years, in May 2024 Salame was sentenced to 7.5 years in federal prison. As of October 2024, he is incarcerated at FCI Cumberland in Maryland. Before incarceration, he gave an interview on Tucker Carlson YouTube channel, and claimed innocence. Tucker Carlson supported him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Salame, Ryan 1993 births Living people Isenberg School of Management alumni University of Massachusetts Amherst alumni McDonough School of Business alumni Georgetown University alumni 21st-century American criminals American male criminals American businesspeople convicted of crimes American people convicted of fraud Criminals from Massachusetts 21st-century American businesspeople