Ryan Salame (born 1992 or 1993[1]) is an American business executive who operated an illegal money-transmitting business. He was the CEO of FTX Digital Markets, the FTX subsidiary based in the Bahamas. He was the founder of the American Dream Federal Action super PAC.[2]
Salame grew up in Sandisfield, Massachusetts.[3] He attended high school at Monument Mountain Regional High School in Great Barrington.[4] He received a BBA (bachelors in business administration) from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2015.[5] He received a Masters in Finance from Georgetown University in 2019.[6][2]
Salame worked briefly for Ernst & Young.[2] In 2019, he started working for Alameda Research in Hong Kong.[2] He later became co-chief of FTX Digital Markets, FTX's Bahamas unit.[7]
During the primaries of the 2022 United States elections, Salame donated millions of dollars to Republican candidates.[8]
Salame invested over $6 million in Lenox, Massachusetts restaurants and real estate.[9]
During the 2022 bankruptcy proceedings of FTX, it was revealed that the company loaned Salame $55 million.[3] Salame’s girlfriend Michelle Bond received $400,000 in consulting fees from FTX Digital Markets.[10] Salame claimed to have learned about the impending collapse of FTX in the week before it filed for bankruptcy and to have vomited upon hearing the news.[11] In April 2023 the FBI raided Salame’s Potomac, Maryland home.[12]
In September 2023, he pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance laws and operating an illegal money-transmitting business. He agreed to forfeit two properties in Lenox, MA along with a Porsche automobile, and to pay a $6 million fine and more than $5 million in restitution to FTX.[13][7]