Danielle Sassoon, one of the US attorneys involved in the prosecution of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, recently testified in an evidentiary hearing concerning a plea deal with one of the company's executives.
During a hearing held on Thursday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, Sassoon provided testimony regarding the guilty plea of Ryan Salame, the former co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets. This plea ultimately led to Salame's sentencing to over seven years in prison.
According to reporting from Inner City Press, Sassoon stated that her team would "probably not continue to investigate [Salame’s] conduct" if he agreed to plead guilty. Subsequent investigation into the former FTX executive and his then-girlfriend, Michelle Bond, resulted in Bond facing campaign finance charges.
"I’m not in the business of gotcha or tricking people into pleading guilty," Sassoon remarked, addressing the situation where Bond was charged following Salame’s plea.
Michelle Bond, one of the final individuals connected to the criminal cases involving former FTX executives, has been seeking to have her charges dismissed. Her defense is based on claims that prosecutors "induced a guilty plea" from Salame. The resolution of her case would likely signify the conclusion of the criminal proceedings that commenced with FTX's bankruptcy filing in November 2022.
Bond pleaded not guilty to charges including conspiracy to cause unlawful campaign contributions, causing and accepting excessive campaign contributions, causing and receiving an unlawful corporate contribution, and causing and receiving a conduit contribution.
These charges are closely linked to allegations that Salame directed approximately $400,000 in funds connected to FTX, which were then utilized for Bond's 2022 campaign for a seat in the US House of Representatives.
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Ryan Salame began serving his seven-and-a-half-year prison sentence in October 2024. Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research, pleaded guilty and commenced her two-year sentence in November 2024.
Two other former executives named in the indictment, Nishad Singh and Gary Wang, both pleaded guilty and received sentences equivalent to time served.
For Sam Bankman-Fried, the legal proceedings are still ongoing. The former CEO has been incarcerated since August 2023, when a judge revoked his bail due to allegations of witness intimidation. He was subsequently tried, found guilty, and sentenced to 25 years in prison, a process closely observed by many within the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry.
On November 4, Bankman-Fried's legal team returned to court to argue for the overturning of the former CEO's conviction and sentence. Filings submitted by the defense contended that Bankman-Fried was "never presumed innocent" during his trial and argued that his legal team was not permitted to present information concerning FTX's solvency.
There is also widespread speculation among many cryptocurrency users that Bankman-Fried may be seeking a pardon from US President Donald Trump. The president previously issued a pardon to former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao in October, stating that "what he did is not even a crime."