Former FTX executive begins prison sentence with LinkedIn post

• Former FTX executive Ryan Salame is headed to prison on Friday.
• He took to LinkedIn on Wednesday to share his update.
• A judge sentenced Salame to 7.5 years in prison earlier this year for his role in the collapse of FTX.

Former FTX CEO Ryan Salame prepared to begin his 7 1/2 year prison sentence with one last Very Online post.

Salame, 31, who was a member of Sam Bankman-Fried’s inner circle, took to LinkedIn with a life update two days before he was scheduled to report to a federal correctional facility in Cumberland, Maryland .

“I am happy to tell you that I am starting a new position at FCI Cumberland,” Salame posted on Wednesday.

In May, a federal judge sentenced Salame to 7 1/2 years in prison on fraud and campaign finance charges related to the collapse of Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency exchange in 2022.

Prosecutors accused Salame of conspiring with Bankman-Fried to defraud FTX investors and customers, as well as making hundreds of illegal political campaign donations.

Salame was one of four top FTX executives who pleaded guilty after the company filed for bankruptcy. Caroline Ellison, former CEO of Alameda Research; Gary Wang, former FTX Chief Technology Officer; and Nishad Singh, the former FTX engineering chief, also agreed to cooperate with federal investigators.

Bankman-Fried, meanwhile, was sentenced to 25 years in prison in March.

Salame started at Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research before becoming co-CEO of FTX’s Bahamas subsidiary in 2021.

In the months leading up to the start of his prison sentence, Salame frequently posted through the pain, taking to the Internet to share hundreds of posts on X.

Among Salame’s thoughts before prison, he shared his support for former President Donald Trump after the Republican candidate spoke at a Bitcoin conference in Nashville. He also complained that the legal system is unfair.

Salame’s prison start date was postponed several times after a dog bit him.

Last month, he tried to withdraw his guilty plea, saying prosecutors broke a promise to him when they indicted Michelle Bond, a cryptocurrency lawyer and Salame’s romantic partner, earlier this year. Prosecutors strongly denied the allegation.

Salame later tried to withdraw his withdrawal, but instead received a 30-minute courtroom talk from U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan.