Pleading the Fifth… Again: FTX Spouse Loses Bid to Duck Campaign Finance Rap ⚖️

A Manhattan federal judge has cleared the way for Michelle Bond, wife of former FTX executive Ryan Salame, to stand trial on charges that she used funds from the now-bankrupt crypto exchange to bankroll her unsuccessful 2022 congressional campaign. Judge George Daniels on Wednesday denied Bond's motion to dismiss a four-count indictment, rejecting her argument that prosecutors had promised her immunity in exchange for Salame's guilty plea. In his order, Daniels wrote there was "no ambiguity" in the terms of Salame's written plea agreement, adding that "all parties, including the defendants and their counsel, were aware that the Government had not promised Bond's immunity by the time Salame entered his guilty plea."

Bond had claimed that then-Manhattan U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon told her and Salame's lawyer in a 2023 meeting that, "without making promises outside the four corners of the plea agreement," if Salame pleaded guilty, prosecutors would "conclude the aspects of our investigation that concern RS (Ryan Salame), but not SBF (Sam Bankman-Fried)." Daniels wrote that the evidence "undisputably indicates that the Government did not promise to not prosecute Bond in exchange for Salame's guilty plea." He added that Bond's former lawyer, Gina Parlovecchio, "admitted as much under oath — testifying that, regardless of what discussions were had, she did not believe Sassoon's statement was a promise at the time it was made."

Salame, the co-CEO of FTX's Bahamian subsidiary, FTX Digital Markets, was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison in May 2024 after pleading guilty to conspiring to make illegal political contributions and operating an illegal money transmitter. Prosecutors first alleged in August 2024 that after Bond launched a bid for a House seat in 2022, Salame orchestrated a consulting agreement between Bond and FTX under which she was paid $400,000. The government further alleges that Bond used those funds, along with hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional funds that Salame wired to her between June and August 2022, to illegally finance her congressional campaign.

Prosecutors claimed that Bond attempted to conceal the source of the payments and made false statements to a congressional committee and the Federal Election Commission. She is facing charges of conspiring to cause unlawful political contributions, causing and receiving a straw donor contribution, causing and accepting excessive campaign contributions, and accepting an unlawful corporate contribution, with each count carrying its own maximum penalty. The case now moves forward as the potential final criminal trial tied to the collapse of FTX, which shook the cryptocurrency industry in 2022.