{"id":137273,"date":"2023-09-02T06:06:40","date_gmt":"2023-09-02T00:36:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/?p=137273"},"modified":"2023-09-02T06:06:40","modified_gmt":"2023-09-02T00:36:40","slug":"former-ftx-exec-declines-testimony-cites-fifth-amendment-rights-crypto-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/former-ftx-exec-declines-testimony-cites-fifth-amendment-rights-crypto-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Former FTX Exec Declines Testimony, Cites Fifth Amendment Rights – Crypto News"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Former FTX executive Ryan Salame will not testify to his involvement in the alleged illegal campaign donation scheme<\/a> that\u2019s part of the FTX trial, according to a motion filed<\/a> by U.S. federal prosecutors on August 14.<\/p>\n

Salame’s attorney indicated that if subpoenaed, Salame would invoke his Fifth Amendment right, a constitutional protection against self-incrimination.<\/p>\n

Salame’s lawyer did not immediately respond to Decrypt<\/i>\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n

Salame, the former co-CEO of FTX’s Bahamian unit, is accused of giving more than $24 million to Republican candidates and causes in the 2022 election cycle using customers’ funds. He has not been charged with a crime.<\/p>\n

His role has been under scrutiny since the company’s downfall<\/a> last year. In April, FBI agents raided<\/a> his Washington D.C. residence.<\/p>\n

Salame\u2019s decision not to testify is mainly the consequence of the existence of a private message he shared with \u201ca trusted family member\u201d in November 2021, in which he admits his role in the donation scheme.<\/p>\n

As detailed in the motion, Salame conveyed in this message that ex-FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried \u201cwant[ed] to donate to both democratic [sic] and republican candidates in the US.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Salame objected because it would alienate both democrats and republicans, further explaining that the purpose of these bipartisan donations would be \u201cto weed out anti crypto dems for pro-crypto dems and anti-crypto repubs for pro-crypto repubs.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also said that it was likely that Bankman-Fried would route money through him \u201cto weed out that Republican side.\u201d<\/p>\n

These statements, as per the motion, \u201care inculpatory of Salame\u201d and will be considered as direct evidence of alleged fraud and money laundering schemes.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next for FTX\u2019s SBF?<\/h2>\n

Bankman-Fried now faces thirteen counts<\/a> of conspiracy and fraud over FTX’s collapse, though the indictment no longer includes conspiracy to violate campaign finance laws as a separate count.<\/p>\n

On July 27, prosecutors initially decided<\/a> to drop a campaign finance charge claiming that the former billionaire illegally directed associates to donate millions of dollars to political campaigns.<\/p>\n

Last week, though, the DoJ indicated<\/a> that it will \u201cmake clear\u201d that \u201cBankman-Fried remains charged with conducting an illegal campaign finance scheme as part of the fraud and money laundering schemes originally charged.\u201d<\/p>\n

FTX\u2019s ex-CEO was jailed<\/a> on August 11 ahead of his October 2 trial in New York City, with another trial scheduled for March 2024 for additional charges brought across multiple superseding indictments.<\/p>\n

FTX didn\u2019t immediately respond to Decrypt<\/i>\u2019s request for comments.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/p>\n

Stay on top of crypto news, get daily updates in your inbox.<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former FTX executive Ryan Salame will not testify to his involvement in the alleged illegal campaign donation scheme that\u2019s part of the FTX trial, according to a motion filed by U.S. federal prosecutors on August 14. Salame’s attorney indicated that if subpoenaed, Salame would invoke his Fifth Amendment right, a constitutional protection against self-incrimination. Salame’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[230,225,221,227,226,228,229,60,223,224,222],"class_list":["post-137273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency","tag-brave","tag-coinbase","tag-crypto","tag-decentralised","tag-decentralized","tag-decentralized-exchange","tag-erc-20","tag-featured","tag-meme-coin","tag-robinhood","tag-solana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137273"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":148485,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137273\/revisions\/148485"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}