Michelle Bond, Girlfriend of FTX CEO Ryan Salameh, Pleads Not Guilty to Criminal Charges
Date: 2024-09-20 Author: Oliver Abernathy Categories: BUSINESS
Michelle Bond, the girlfriend of former FTX CEO Ryan Salameh, pleaded not guilty this week to violating campaign finance laws in connection with her 2022 congressional bid.
According to court documents, Bond has formally pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring to make illegal campaign contributions, receiving and making excessive contributions, engaging in a straw contribution, and receiving an illegal corporate contribution.
Michelle Bond Pleads Not Guilty
Bond, who ran for Congress as a Republican with Donald Trump in New York State’s 1st Congressional District, is accused of accepting more than half a million dollars from FTX to fund her campaign.
According to the federal indictment, Bond was dating Salameh, the former co-CEO of FTX Markets, by early 2022.
Meanwhile, Salameh received 7.5 years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to commit illegal campaign financing and defraud the Federal Election Commission in May of this year.
However, the former Sam Bankman-Fried partner could now face sanctions for apparently admitting to lying under oath after filing and then withdrawing a motion to overturn his guilty plea.
The former crypto executive claimed that U.S. prosecutors allegedly promised to drop the investigation into Bond when he agreed to the initial plea deal.
Salameh was set to begin serving his sentence for his crimes related to the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange next month, but in light of his recent plea, it’s unclear whether that will happen.
Former FTX CEO Ryan Salameh Speaks Out
Crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried’s ex-girlfriend, Caroline Ellison, is set to go on trial on September 24.
Unlike Salameh, Ellison has agreed to testify against Bankman-Fried at his high-profile trial in 2023. The crypto fraudster was convicted of seven counts of fraud for orchestrating a massive digital asset scheme. He is currently serving a 25-year sentence at the Metropolitan Detention Center in New York.
Meanwhile, Salameh has been sharply critical of the federal justice system on social media ahead of his incarceration.
“I hope everyone understood the real lesson the government is teaching by giving SBF 25 years, me 7.5 years, and Caroline 0 years,” Salameh wrote in a recent post on X. “Lie as much as they make you and you can get away with anything…”
Also, FTX CTO Gary Wang and CTO Nishad Singh are expected to be sentenced soon.
