Federal Prosecutors Investigate Former FTX Executive Over Possible Campaign Law Violations: WSJ

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating a former FTX executive over possible violations of campaign finance law related to his girlfriend’s congressional campaign last year, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

Ryan Salame, who was FTX’s co-chief executive of its Bahamas-based unit, is being investigated for potentially illegally avoiding federal limits on contributions to Michelle Bond’s campaign for the Republican primary for New York’s 1st congressional district, according to the report, citing people familiar with the matter.

Prosecutors are looking at money Salame donated to Bond’s campaign. The investigation dates back to at least April, when a search warrant was executed for the couple’s home in Maryland and the two had their cellphones seized. At the time of Bond’s campaign, she was CEO of a trade group called the Association for Digital Asset Markets and also worked as a $200,000-a-year-consultant for FTX, according to a congressional financial disclosure statement.

The investigation concerning Salame is being treated separately from that into founder Sam Bankman-Fried, which include campaign finance law violations as well as fraud and conspiracy. Salame has not been charged in the FTX case, but he has previously been identified by the Wall Street Journal as an unnamed co-conspirator cited in Bankman-Fried’s indictment who allegedly took part in a campaign-finance plot unrelated to Bond.

Bankman-Fried is due to face trial in New York in October following the dramatic collapse of the exchange last November.