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Michelle Bond, the wife of former FTX executive Ryan Salame, will face illicit campaign finance charges after a judge rejected her argument that prosecutors promised Salame that she would be cleared if he pleaded guilty.<\/p>\n
Manhattan federal judge George Daniels on Wednesday denied<\/a> Bond\u2019s bid to dismiss an indictment that alleged she illegally took money from the now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX to help bankroll her unsuccessful run for Congress in 2022.<\/p>\n Daniels wrote there was \u201cno ambiguity\u201d in the terms of Salame\u2019s written plea agreement. \u201cAs the evidence made clear, 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n FTX\u2019s high-profile collapse in 2022 shook the cryptocurrency industry. The order could set up the last of the criminal trials tied to FTX, closing a chapter on one of crypto\u2019s biggest blowups in history.\u00a0<\/p>\n Michelle Bond (left) and Ryan Salame (right) leaving a Manhattan courthouse in August 2024. Source: <\/em>YouTube<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Salame, who was the co-CEO of FTX\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Bond claimed that then-Manhattan US Attorney Danielle Sassoon told her and Salame\u2019s lawyer in a 2023 meeting that \u201cwithout making promises outside the four corners of the plea agreement,\u201d if Salame pleaded guilty, then prosecutors would \u201cconclude the aspects of our investigation that concern RS (Ryan Salame), but not SBF (Sam Bankman-Fried).\u201d<\/p>\n However, Daniels wrote that the evidence \u201cundisputably indicates that the Government did not promise to not prosecute Bond in exchange for Salame’s guilty plea.\u201d<\/p>\n He added that Bond\u2019s former lawyer, Gina Parlovecchio, \u201cadmitted as much under oath \u2014 testifying that, regardless of what discussions were had, she did not believe Sassoon’s statement was a promise at the time it was made.\u201d<\/p>\n Prosecutors first alleged<\/a> in August 2024 that after Bond launched a bid for a House seat in 2022, Salame orchestrated a consulting agreement between Bond and FTX, where she was paid $400,000.<\/p>\n