Michelle Bond, CEO of Digital Futures.
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Prosecutors announced Thursday that Michelle Bond, the domestic partner of former FTX CEO Ryan Salameh, has been indicted in New York on federal charges that she conspired to solicit illegal campaign donations from FTX for her failed 2022 run for Congress.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams alleges that Bond, 45, illegally funded her campaign through a “fictitious” $400,000 down payment from FTX, followed by a $100,000 annual payment from the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange.
Bond, who lives in Potomac, Maryland, was running for a House seat in New York's 1st Congressional District, which includes eastern Long Island.
Salama and Bond met in June 2021 and began their relationship early the following year, according to the indictment.
The indictment alleges that Salameh, identified only as CC-1, conspired with Bond to commit the crimes, saying Salameh arranged the payment from FTX to Bond. She then used “all” of that money “to illegally fund her campaign,” the indictment says.
Between June and August 2022, Salameh allegedly transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars into Bond’s personal bank account, which she then also used to illegally fund her campaign, according to the indictment.
The four-count indictment was unsealed a day after Salama, the father of Bond's eight-month-old son, asked a federal judge in New York to overturn his guilty plea to campaign finance and money laundering crimes.
Salameh's lawyers say prosecutors backed out of an agreement to drop the investigation into Bond's campaign finances as an incentive to force him to plead guilty.
Bond was an attorney based in or near Washington, D.C., and “at all times relevant to the indictment” served as CEO of a digital assets trade group, the indictment says. In June, Bond also announced the launch of Digital Future, a think tank “dedicated to advancing the development of the next generation of the financial services industry,” according to a press release.
“The indictment includes a number of revealing text messages and emails, which when combined with the bank records, paint a compelling picture that Bond attempted to circumvent and cover up campaign finance rules,” said Sterling Marchand, a partner at Baker Botts, who advises clients on federal and state political and election laws.
“Salama claims that the government implicitly promised not to investigate Bond further,” Marchand added. “But today’s indictment shows a very strong case against Bond – which I believe the government intended to convey.”
She was released on a $1 million personal bond signed by another person, and was seen leaving the lower Manhattan courtroom holding Salama's hand earlier Thursday afternoon.
Ryan Salameh, former co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, leaves federal court after pleading guilty to two counts including conspiracy to make illegal U.S. political contributions, in New York City, Sept. 7, 2023.
Brendan McDiarmid | Reuters
Salameh was not a cooperating witness in the criminal trial last year of his former FTX boss, Sam Bankman-Fried, who was sentenced in March to 25 years in prison for fraud and conspiracy.
The charges against Salameh stem from his involvement in a scheme to finance a multi-million dollar election campaign during his tenure at FTX.
Salameh is scheduled to begin serving a seven-and-a-half-year prison sentence on October 13. The court also ordered Salameh to pay more than $6 million in fines and more than $5 million in damages.
Williams, the U.S. attorney, separately wrote to the judge in his criminal case on Wednesday asking the court to “reject Ryan Salama’s brazen and selfish attempt to withdraw his guilty plea following his sentencing.”
Judge Lewis Kaplan set September 12 as the date to hear arguments from both sides on whether to cancel the deal Salameh struck with the public prosecutor.
—CNBC's Dan Mangan contributed to this report.
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