Former FTX exec is planning to plead guilty to criminal charges: Report

A Sept. 7 court appearance by Ryan Salame could see the former co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets plead guilty, following the examples of Caroline Ellison, Gary Wang, and Nishad Singh.

Ryan Salame, the former co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, is reportedly planning to plead guilty to criminal charges related to his alleged involvement in illicit activities at the failed cryptocurrency exchange.

According to a Sept. 7 Bloomberg report citing “people familiar with the case”, Salame plans to plead guilty to a variety of charges during a scheduled court appearance. His guilty plea would make him one of many executives previously tied to FTX to do so since the exchange’s collapse in November 2022.

Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges in December 2022. FTX’s former engineering director Nishad Singh pleaded guilty to similar charges in February 2023.

FTX Digital Markets was crypto exchange FTX’s affiliate in the Bahamas, where many of the executives including former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried were based prior to the company’s bankruptcy. Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to 12 criminal charges, which he will address in two trials scheduled to begin on Oct. 2, 2023 and March 11, 2024.

This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.