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- The FBI raided former co-CEO of FTX Ryan Salame’s house in Potomac, Maryland.
- The reason behind the raid and what was recovered is not revealed yet.
The FTX-saga has taken an interesting turn, on April 27, 2023. The FBI conducted a raid on former co-CEO Salame’s home in Potomac Maryland, but the reasons were not revealed. Salame joined the now-bankrupt crypto exchange as the Chief Executive officer of FTX Digital Marketing.
FBI Raids Former Co-CEO of FTX
Federal Bureau of Investigation has raided the house of Ryan Salame, who worked as the ex-CEO of FTX’s Bahamian subsidiary. Interestingly this raid has been conducted after months of the collapse of once the world’s third-largest crypto exchange. In November 2022, FTX filed for bankruptcy along with its subsidiaries, and the exchange is charged with financial crimes.
FTX’s customers lost around $8 Billion in the ordeal, and the enraged investors, authorities, and prosecutors all want the management of the exchange to be behind bars. However, the former crypto white knight and FTX CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried served brief imprisonment in a Bahamian prison but was soon extradited to the U.S. in January 2023. He was soon released on a $250,000 bond and is under house arrest at his parent’s house in California.
Interestingly in the 2022 election season, Sam Bankman-Fried reportedly gave over $40 Million to lawmakers mostly Democrats. He is also known to be meeting top officials in the White House on multiple occasions. This funding is believed to be an act of lobbying and adding some clauses to the proposed crypto regulation act. The lawmakers have returned the amount following the heat.
Sam Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to five federal charges of fraud and conspiracy, they also included one count of conspiring to bribe the Chinese government officials. He previously pleaded not guilty to eight other counts of charges. Prosecutors are describing this as the biggest financial fraud in the history of the United States.
Earlier this week, the federal prosecutors listed the 13th criminal charge against SBF, where he is accused of bribing Chinese government officials with $40 Million worth of crypto. This bribe was made to unfreeze the accounts associated with Alameda Research. The frozen accounts allegedly hold over $1 Billion worth of digital assets. Interestingly, the accounts were released after the payment was transferred from Alameda’s main trading account to a private cryptocurrency wallet.
The new FTX CEO, John Ray III, is now handling the affairs and trying to recover as many funds as possible.
SBF’s lawyers have asked for an extension regarding a clause in his bail agreement, that his parent’s mobile devices shall be installed with a software application that would take a photo of the user every five minutes. This would help the authorities to track who is using the device and for what purpose. The lawyers are facing difficulties in finding the right app which could do the required job, this is the third extension asked for similar reasons.
The next trial is supposed to be in October, and the prosecutors have launched a website for the affected victims to post their testimonies. This was done as there are thousands of victims and reaching every single one is impossible.
If the new charges are verified Sam could get additional 40 years in prison, he is already about to get decades behind the bar for the charges he is already accused of. However, the extent of imprisonment would be clarified after the trial ends.
Andrew is a blockchain developer who developed his interest in cryptocurrencies while pursuing his post-graduation major in blockchain development. He is a keen observer of details and shares his passion for writing, along with coding. His backend knowledge about blockchain helps him give a unique perspective to his writing skills, and a reliable craft at explaining the concepts such as blockchain programming, languages and token minting. He also frequently shares technical details and performance indicators of ICOs and IDOs.
