Restaurateur, Political Donor, Tipster: The Many Roles of FTX's Ryan Salame

The co-CEO of an FTX unit who notified regulators of wrongdoing on the exchange was a major Republican donor. He also bought restaurants.

In Western Massachusetts, Ryan Salame was known as a local boy turned hometown hero who struck gold in as a senior executive at FTX, the now-collapsed cryptocurrency exchange, and used some of that wealth to buy up a few small restaurants in the area.

In Washington, D.C., Mr. Salame has been hailed as a “budding Republican megadonor,” funding candidates and political action committees, and establishing FTX’s presence as a crypto heavyweight invested in shaping regulation of the fledgling industry.

Now Mr. Salame has become a central player in the scandal surrounding FTX after telling regulators in the Bahamas, where the exchange was based, that FTX was diverting billions of client funds to support an allied trading firm crypto called Alameda Research.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas on Monday, accused of lying to investors, lenders and customers about the close financial relationship between FTX and Alameda, and about committing fraud by using the two companies as a "piggy bank". Prosecutors said Mr. Bankman-Fried used client funds to trade, buy expensive real estate, invest in other crypto businesses, make political contributions and provide personal loans to executives.

So So far, Mr. Bankman-Fried, who is being held without bond in a Bahamian jail, is the only FTX executive charged with wrongdoing. But Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan, said the investigation is continuing and prosecutors are not finished charging individuals.

Mr. Salame's activities can be scrutinized, given that he played a pivotal role in FTX's political influence operation with Mr. Bankman-Fried. Mr. Salame, former co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, the company's Bahamian subsidiary, also received a $55 million personal loan from Alameda.

Mr. Salame (pronounced Salem) did not return multiple requests for comment. His attorney, Jason Linder of Mayer Brown, also did not respond to requests for comment.

Born in Sandisfield, Mass., a town of just 1,000 people in the Berkshires, Mr Salame briefly worked at accounting giant EY. In 2019, he graduated from Georgetown University with a master's degree in finance before landing a job with Alameda in Hong Kong. He then moved to FTX in the Bahamas, where he was the main point of contact between the exchange and the local government.

ImageSam Bankman-Fried, the founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, was arrested in the Bahamas on Monday.Credit...Mario Duncanson/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

< p class= "css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">Mr. Salame was not part of Mr. Bankman-Fried's inner circle, but he was fiercely loyal to him, according to people familiar with the matter. Mr. Bankman-Fried and his closest advisers all shared an alleged commitment to donating most of the money they earned under the banner of "effective altruism".

In contrast, Mr. Salame said at times that he was in crypto because it was a way to get rich, according to...