Michelle Bond, Partner of FTX Executive Ryan Salame, Enters Not Guilty Plea in Campaign Finance Case

Michelle Bond, the partner of former FTX executive Ryan Salame, pleaded not guilty this week to violations of campaign finance laws related to her 2022 congressional campaign.

According to court documents, Bond formally entered a not guilty plea to charges including conspiracy to cause unlawful campaign contributions, causing and receiving excessive campaign contributions, causing and receiving a conduit contribution, and causing and receiving an unlawful corporate contribution.

Michelle Bond Pleads Not Guilty

Bond, who ran as a Trump-backed Republican candidate in New York’s first congressional district, is accused of accepting more than half a million dollars from FTX to fund her campaign.

A federal indictment states that Bond was dating Salame, the former co-CEO of FTX Markets, by early 2022.

Salame previously received a 7.5-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to conspiracy to make unlawful political contributions and defrauding the Federal Election Commission in May.

However, the former associate of Sam Bankman-Fried now faces potential sanctions after seemingly admitting to lying under oath when he submitted a now-withdrawn petition to vacate his guilty plea.

The former crypto executive alleged that U.S. prosecutors reportedly promised to cease investigating Bond in exchange for his original plea agreement.

Salame was scheduled to begin serving his sentence for crimes stemming from the now-defunct crypto exchange next month, though his recent plea developments have cast uncertainty on that timeline.

Former FTX Executive Ryan Salame Speaks Out

Caroline Ellison, the former partner of crypto figure Sam Bankman-Fried, is scheduled to face sentencing on September 24.

Unlike Salame, Ellison agreed to testify against Bankman-Fried during his 2023 trial. The crypto executive was found guilty on seven fraud charges for orchestrating a massive digital asset scheme and is currently serving a 25-year sentence at the Metropolitan Detention Center in New York.

Meanwhile, Salame has been a vocal critic of the federal legal system on social media ahead of his sentence.

I hope everyone appreciates the real lesson the government is teaching by putting SBF in prison for 25 years, me for 7.5 years, and Caroline for 0 years. Lie as much as they push you to and you can get away with anything…

— Ryan Salame (@rsalame7926) September 18, 2024

“I hope everyone appreciates the real lesson the government is teaching by putting SBF in prison for 25 years, me for 7.5 years, and Caroline for 0 years,” Salame wrote in a recent post on X. “Lie as much as they push you to, and you can get away with anything…”

In addition to Ellison, FTX CTO Gary Wang and director of engineering Nishad Singh are scheduled to be sentenced in the near future.