A white-collar criminal appears to be having a laugh about his 7.5 years prison sentence, and he's letting everyone know about it on LinkedIn.
Ryan Salame, who helped expose FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried of stealing more than $8 billion in customer money that was supposed to be safely stored in the cryptocurrency exchange, on Thursday updated his LinkedIn profile to inform his professional network that he was starting a new position as he begins doing time Friday for fraud and conspiracy charges.
"I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Inmate at FCI Cumberland!," Salame's post read.
The former co-CEO of FTX's Bahamian subsidiary, FTX Digital Markets, also added "cleaning and whittling" as a skill in his new position.
Last year, Salame pleaded guilty to conspiracy to make unlawful political contributions and defraud the Federal Election Commission, and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business. He later attempted to void the plea, claiming prosecutors didn't live up to their promise to drop their criminal probe against his romantic partner and former New York congressional candidate Michelle Bond.
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Bond ran to represent the state's 1st Congressional District in the 2022 Republican primary, and she lost to Nicholas LaLota by 5,000 votes. She was indicted in August this year with charges of violating campaign finance laws.
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"Michelle Bond and her co-conspirator romantic partner attempted to fund her campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives by illegally using hundreds of thousands of dollars from corporate coffers, among other sources, and then lying to Congress and others to cover it all up," U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said.
The pair met in June 2021, according to prosecutors, and they have a young child together.
Williams accused them of orchestrating "a sham consulting agreement" between Bond and FTX, in which the failed crypto exchange paid her $400,000. The money was allegedly then used to illegally finance her campaign.
Salame later dropped his attempt to void his guilty plea, and he was still sentenced to 90 months in prison and ordered to pay more than $6 million in forfeiture and more than $5 million in restitution, CNBC reported.
The judge ordered Salame to surrender to prison by Oct. 11 after officials realized that the prior surrender date of Oct. 13 would fall on a Sunday.
