Judge Clears FTX-Funded Campaign Charges Against Michelle Bond

A Manhattan federal judge on Wednesday denied Michelle Bond’s motion to dismiss an indictment that alleges she used funds from the collapsed crypto exchange FTX to finance her 2022 congressional campaign, leaving the criminal case to proceed in federal court. Judge George B. Daniels wrote there was “no ambiguity” in the terms of Ryan Salame’s written plea agreement and found the record shows the government did not promise to grant Bond immunity in exchange for Salame’s guilty plea. Daniels added that the evidence “undisputably indicates that the Government did not promise to not prosecute Bond in exchange for Salame’s guilty plea.” Bond, who is married to former FTX executive Ryan Salame, argued that a 2023 meeting with then-Manhattan U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon supported her claim that prosecutors had assured her she would be cleared if Salame pleaded guilty. Bond’s filing quoted prosecutors telling her and Salame’s lawyer that, “without making promises outside the four corners of the plea agreement,” they would “conclude the aspects of our investigation that concern RS (Ryan Salame), but not SBF (Sam Bankman-Fried).” Daniels rejected that argument as insufficient to block prosecution and noted that Bond’s former attorney, Gina Parlovecchio, testified she did not believe any prosecutor statement amounted to a promise. Prosecutors allege that after Bond launched a bid for a House seat in 2022, Salame arranged a consulting agreement through which Bond was paid $400,000 by FTX. They further allege Salame wired hundreds of thousands of additional dollars to her between June and August 2022. The indictment charges that Bond used those funds to illegally finance her campaign, attempted to conceal the source of the payments, and made false statements to a congressional committee and to the Federal Election Commission. Bond faces four counts: conspiring to cause unlawful political contributions; causing and receiving a straw donor contribution; and causing and accepting excessive campaign contributions and an unlawful corporate contribution. Each count carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. Ryan Salame, who served as co-CEO of FTX’s Bahamian unit, pleaded guilty to conspiring to make illegal political contributions and to operating an illegal money transmitter and was sentenced in May 2024 to seven and a half years in prison. Daniels’s ruling leaves the indictment intact and represents one of the criminal matters tied to FTX’s 2022 bankruptcy that remain before federal courts.