Were Ryan Salame and Michelle Bond’s ambitions in crypto and politics too big to handle? Could they have avoided the scandal, or was their collapse inevitable?

When ambitions meet greed

Ryan Salame and Michelle Bond were once the epitome of a power couple — wealthy, influential, and deeply embedded in Washington’s political and crypto circles.

Salame, a top executive at FTX, had the ear of powerful Republicans, with millions to support their causes. Bond, a former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawyer, stood out as a prominent crypto policy advocate with ambitions of running for Congress.

Together, they seemed unstoppable — until the collapse of FTX in November 2022 brought their world crashing down.

Now, both are facing prison time, their once-glamorous lives unraveling into a tangled web of legal battles, accusations, and public disgrace.

But how did it all happen?

The beginning of the end

To understand the fall of Salame and Bond, we have to start with the implosion of FTX.

In November 2022, FTX, the crypto exchange once valued at over $32 billion, collapsed after it was revealed that billions of customer funds were missing.

Its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, had orchestrated one of the most catastrophic financial frauds in U.S. history. But the effects of FTX’s downfall didn’t stop with Bankman-Fried.

As investigators dug deeper, prosecutors uncovered a complex web of political donations, illegal financial transactions, and campaign finance violations — and Salame and Bond were right in the middle of it.

Salame, who had been CEO of FTX Digital Markets, played a critical role in the company’s political outreach. He had poured millions into Republican campaigns, making himself one of the top conservative donors in the country.

His political contributions Go to Source to See Full Article
Author: Ankish Jain