A US judge has reportedly accused embattled former FTX executive Ryan Salame of providing false testimony during his guilty plea last year.
District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan indicated in court on Thursday that he may have to sanction Salame, though he didn’t specify the details of what that punishment might look like, according to a new report from CNBC.
Kaplan reportedly said Salame “induced” him into agreeing to the former FTX executive’s guilty plea.
“You are asking me to let stand a conviction and sentence that I now know is based on false testimony before me in the plea allocution… And that might be a big problem.”
In court on Thursday, Salame reportedly copped to lying during his plea hearing last year when he said he wasn’t promised anything by prosecutors in exchange for his plea.
Salame, the former co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, the Bahamian subsidiary of the bankrupt crypto exchange, pled guilty to conspiracy to make unlawful political contributions and defraud the Federal Election Commission, as well as conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business.
In May, Kaplan sentenced Salame to 7.5 years behind bars, and he’s due to report to prison in October.
In a petition to the court last month, Salame claimed he cut a deal with the government and pled guilty to prevent further investigation into the mother of his child, Michelle Bond, a former Congressional candidate.
A few days later, Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced charges against Bond over alleged campaign finance violations related to her unsuccessful run for Congress in 2022.
Williams said in an indictment that Salame organized a sham $400,000 payment to Bond from FTX, which Bond allegedly used to fund her campaign.
Salame’s lawyers claimed the government used the former CEO’s negotiations to threaten Bond and induce Salame into pleading guilty. Salame asked the court first to dismiss Bond’s indictment, but if that didn’t happen, to dismiss his own conviction and guilty plea.
The prosecution shot back, however, calling Salame’s accusation “demonstrably false” in a response.
“Salame entirely omits that the Government had a follow-up virtual meeting with Salame’s attorneys on May 25, 2023, to clarify the status of its investigation into Michelle Bond – whom Salame’s attorneys also represented – and spelled out, for the avoidance of any doubt, that a Salame guilty plea would not stop any ongoing investigation into Bond’s conduct.”
Salame’s lawyers later filed to withdraw the former FTX executive’s petition so Bond could bring up the issue in her case.
Salame’s legal team didn’t recant his previous accusations, however.
“To be clear, Mr. Salame stands by the facts set forth in the Petition and his accompanying declaration. Mr. Salame is withdrawing the Petition, however, to allow the facts to be developed by Ms. Bond, and a ruling to be made, in her case.”
In court on Thursday, Kaplan said he would take time to consider the matter and what needs to be done, according to CNBC.
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