Almost three years after Crypto Exchange FTX collapsed, the court has been linked to executives, and their peers are still unfolding. This week, Michelle Bond, the spouse of former FTX Digital Markets co-CEO Ryan Salame, will return to court for evidence hearing in her criminal case.
As it filed Sunday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), Bond’s legal team requested that federal judges be allowed to testify despite prosecutors’ objections.
Prosecutors argued Friday that the bonds are unlikely to provide testimony related to Salamet’s judicial agreement, including allegations of campaign finance fraud. He is currently serving time in prison on charges related to his role in the company’s downfall.
Salame’s plea deal is at the heart of Bond’s case regarding alleged campaign finance violations. Prosecutors alleged that Salamet had ordered $400,000 in FTX-related funds sent to her campaign.
The bonds were accused of conspiracy to cause illegal campaign contributions, to bring about excessive campaign contributions, to accept, to bring about illegal corporate contributions, to accept, to bring about conduit contributions, to accept, to accept them in August 2024.
“The government has no basis to prevent Bond from giving testimony because her testimony is neither redundant nor irrelevant,” her lawyer said. “My husband’s state of mind when he joined the judiciary agreement with Bond is directly related to the matter before the court. […]”
As one of five defendants included in the charges of former FTX and Alamedada research executives, Salamet pleaded guilty to conspiracy to make illegal political contributions and to deceive a conspiracy to run a federal election commission and an unexempt monetary transfer business.
He was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison and reported in October 2024.
After Salamet’s guilty plea, his lawyers attempted to evict a deal with US prosecutors, claiming that the agreement was conditional on the part of the agreement not pursuing criminal charges against the bonds. He eventually dropped the complaint and said Bond would address the issue as part of her case.
Related: Ex-FTX Judge Questions If Exec Disguised himself in a Guilty Plea
Return to court in a few months
The scheduled Thursday evidence hearing will show the bonds return to court for the first time after months of applications centered on Salamet’s contract with the government.
Her lawyer called for the testimony of former US lawyer Daniel Sasson, in addition to potentially positioned bonds. Sasson was the chief prosecutor in government cases against former FTX CEO Sam Bankmanfried and four other executives, including Salamet.
Sasson resigned in February after the Justice Department directed the case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, but Bond’s lawyer asked him to speak about “any promise or incentive made to plead guilty to Mr. Salamet.”
Although US lawyers have not opposed the claim, they have sought Bond’s lawyers to provide “documentary evidence” or testimony related to the plea agreement.
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