Ryan Salame began his prison sentence on October 11, but not before going viral on social media.
Ryan Salame, a former FTX executive, considered Sam Bankman-Fried’s right-hand man, who was convicted for his role in the collapse of the disgraced exchange, is now in prison. He was sent to jail on October 11 to be an inmate at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI), Cumberland.
Salame was sentenced to 7.5 years, or 90 months, in prison as he pleaded guilty in 2023 to multiple charges, including operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business and campaign finance violations. He tried to push back his October 11 surrender date, citing medical treatment for a dog bite as the reason. However, the judge and prosecutors did not have it, with the judge, Lewis Kaplan, throwing out his request in an October 10 ruling.
Salame Made the Best of His Day Before Walking Into Prison
Despite his surrender and a long time behind bars ahead, Salame maintains a good sense of humor. Some may call it unfazed trolling. He changed his X display picture to reflect that he was now an inmate, draping a shirt and a hat resembling what inmates wear. His X posts were unfazed as well, with him expressing sorrow because his “wordle streak” would now end. That post was made on the same day of his surrender.
Another post talks about LinkedIn, a platform on which he went viral over the weekend. Salame took to the platform to announce, “I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Inmate at FCI Cumberland!” His work experience section reflected the same, with “cleaning” being mentioned as one of the skills. Salame’s LinkedIn page no longer exists and following links to his profile throw a 404 error.
He also appeared on the Unchained podcast hosted by Laura Shin for over 100 minutes on the day of his surrender to speak about the whole FTX ordeal, various crimes, and his incarceration. In the interview, he spoke about wanting to leave FTX thrice but staying back for a different reason each time, making political contributions because of his altruistic outlook, and whether he misled Alameda Research and banks or not.
Salame also iterated that he was not part of the inner FTX circle and did not know about the problems going on in the exchange. He claimed that he only found out about missing customer funds when FTX collapsed. Regarding whether he would go back to work in the crypto industry after the jail stint, Salame mentioned that he had done too much damage to it to consider working in it again, apart from trading for personal purposes.
