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Ryan Salame, ex-head of FTX Digital Markets, believes he was targeted by the U.S. government due to his support for the Republican Party. He was accused of breaching campaign finance laws for making political donations using borrowed money. Although Salame pleaded guilty to avoid action against his family, he claims authorities pursued them regardless. Comparatively, no charges were brought against his Democratic donor colleagues, such as FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. He suggests his donations were legal, but he was charged with a straw donor scheme. His legal battle cost about $6 million.

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Ryan Salame, who used to be at the helm of FTX Digital Markets, feels that he’s been unfairly picked on by the U.S. government because he’s a Republican Party supporter. He was interviewed by Tucker Carlson shortly after he asked a judge to push back his surrender date by two months for health reasons.

During the interview, Salame said he was wrongfully accused of violating campaign finance laws by making donations to the Republican Party. He pointed out that none of his colleagues who were convicted, like FTX’s CEO Sam Bankman-Fried who supported Biden’s campaign, faced similar charges. He said, “Sam Bankman-Fried is in jail for a long time, but he hasn’t been charged with any campaign finance violations. He donated to Democrats.”

Salame emphasized that he wasn’t implicated in anything related to the collapse of the crypto exchange, FTX. The campaign finance charges arose from him borrowing money from Alameda for political donations. He said he gave between 20 and 30 million dollars to Republican candidates.

Speaking about the funds, Salame said he was informed by his lawyers at the time that the money he donated was legally obtained. However, he was later accused of using a straw donor scheme, where he used somebody else’s money to make political contributions in his name.

Further, he expressed doubts about the validity of a second charge against him for operating without a money transmitting license. Contrastingly, he pointed out that SBF made donations amounting to around 60 to 70 million dollars to the Democrats during the 2020 cycle.

Salame also suggested that he was coerced into pleading guilty due to threats of prosecutors going after his child’s mother. He said, “They told me that if I pled guilty to these crimes, they wouldn’t go after my loved ones.”

Despite pleading guilty to prevent his family from getting involved in the investigation, he alleges the authorities went back on their deal. He said, “The government has continued to go after the mother of my child. I’m going to use this in an attempt an appeal.”

While criticizing the U.S. justice system, which he believes favors convictions over truth, Salame also pointed out that none of SBF’s family members faced any legal consequences in spite of their involvement.

Salame’s legal fight cost him approximately 6 million dollars to wage. On a related note, former Alameda Research CEO, Caroline Ellison, agreed to settle her case by giving up most of her assets, some of which will be used to pay FTX creditors.

Source: Cointelegraph