The post FTX’s Ryan Salame returns to court as Judge probes back-room plea deal appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

Former FTX executive Ryan Salame is back in court today because Judge Lewis Kaplan wants answers about the shady deal that led to his guilty plea last year. That deal earned him a 7.5-year prison sentence. It wasn’t just any regular plea though. Ryan’s lawyers now say the deal was cooked up behind closed doors, with prosecutors making promises they didn’t keep. Last month, Ryan’s legal team asked Judge Kaplan to void the guilty plea for campaign finance and money-transmitting crimes. Their argument? Prosecutors didn’t hold up their end of the deal. His attorneys said the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office told Ryan in April 2023 that if he pled guilty, they’d stop investigating his partner, Michelle Bond. Michelle, who used to be a lawyer at the SEC, was fighting her own legal battles. She was facing charges tied to her failed 2022 run for Congress. The charges were serious—four counts of campaign finance violations. Prosecutors promised to back off from investigating Michelle if Ryan took the fall. However, a twist came when Michelle got indicted anyway. That indictment was unsealed just one day after Ryan’s team tried to back out of the deal. Just days after asking the judge to throw out his guilty plea, he changed his mind again.  Ryan filed a motion to withdraw his request to void the deal. Meanwhile, prosecutors hit back hard. They dropped a 32-page memo last week, shutting down Ryan’s claims. They said the deal was legit, and there was no shady back-room coercion. Kaplan, though, has made Ryan’s attendance in court a condition of his bail.  In May, he gave him a heavier sentence than even the prosecutors had asked for. While they suggested five to seven years, Kaplan went for 7.5. Ryan was supposed to report to prison already, but a…

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Filed under: News - @ September 12, 2024 2:25 pm