Almost three years after the collapse of crypto trade FTX, courtroom battles tied to its executives and their associates are nonetheless unfolding. This week, Michelle Bond, partner of former FTX Digital Markets co-CEO Ryan Salame, will return to court docket for an evidentiary listening to in her felony case.
In a Sunday submitting within the US District Courtroom for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), Bond’s authorized workforce requested {that a} federal decide permit her to testify regardless of prosecutors’ objections.
Prosecutors had argued Friday that it was unlikely Bond might provide testimony related to Salame’s plea settlement involving allegations of marketing campaign finance fraud. He’s presently serving time in jail for expenses associated to his function within the firm’s downfall.
Salame’s plea deal sits on the coronary heart of Bond’s case over alleged marketing campaign finance violations. Prosecutors alleged that Salame ordered $400,000 in funds tied to FTX despatched to her marketing campaign.
Bond was charged with conspiracy to trigger illegal marketing campaign contributions, inflicting and accepting extreme marketing campaign contributions, inflicting and receiving an illegal company contribution, and inflicting and receiving a conduit contribution in August 2024. She pleaded not responsible to all expenses.
“The federal government has no grounds to pre-emptively bar Ms. Bond from testifying as a result of her testimony is neither redundant nor irrelevant,” mentioned her attorneys. “Ms. Bond’s and her husband’s frame of mind in coming into into the plea settlement are instantly related to the problems earlier than the Courtroom […]”
As considered one of 5 defendants included within the indictment of former FTX and Alameda Analysis executives, Salame pleaded responsible to conspiracy to make illegal political contributions and defraud the Federal Election Fee and conspiracy to function an unlicensed cash transmitting enterprise.
He was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in jail, the place he reported in October 2024.
After Salame’s responsible plea, his attorneys tried to vacate his cope with US prosecutors, claiming that the settlement was contingent on them not pursuing felony expenses in opposition to Bond. He finally dropped the criticism, saying that Bond would handle the matter as a part of her case.
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Returning to court docket after months
The scheduled Thursday evidentiary listening to will mark the primary time Bond will return to court docket after months of filings centered on Salame’s cope with the federal government.
Along with Bond doubtlessly taking the stand, her attorneys requested that former Assistant US Lawyer Danielle Sassoon testify. Sassoon was the lead prosecutor within the authorities’s case in opposition to former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and 4 different executives, together with Salame.
Although Sassoon resigned in February after the Justice Division directed her to halt a case in opposition to New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams, Bond’s attorneys requested that she seem to talk on “any promise or inducement made to Mr. Salame to plead responsible.”
The US Attorneys haven’t opposed the movement, however requested that Bond’s attorneys present “documentary proof” or testimony associated to the plea deal.
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