I have heard rumors that Ryan Salame is now claiming he is innocent and that the only reason he pled guilty was because the government threatened to indict his partner if he didn’t. Is this true?
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I follow Ryan’s twitter and it does feel like he’s moving in this direction, see for instance this:
If anyone wants to truly improve the justice system proffers should be recorded so the induced modifications over time are recorded…
and this:
I got some BIG interviews coming up but I’ll share a couple notes beforehand -
I wasn’t pushing crypto regulation in DC, I was pushing pandemic policy work altruistically (details to come)
There was no bank fraud (this is obvious unless you’re stupid)
Lawyers told me we didn’t need MTLs and I still don’t understand why we needed them
People lied in SBFs trial (doesn’t mean he’s innocent but truly problematic)
You aren’t aware how corrupt the legislative process is (more to come)
Much of what the judge accused me of was based on nothing (I didn’t run to the regulators to protect myself they called me)
I remember a while back a journalist suggesting the thing about his partner too (An S.B.F. Arm Twist for Crypto’s Ryan Salame & Michelle Bond - Puck):
That’s why some savvy observers wonder if the feds’ supposed snooping around Bond is merely a roundabout way to further pressure Salame, who has yet to plead guilty to any federal crimes. First, the feds not-so-obliquely referenced Salame “co-conspirator 2” in an alleged straw-donor scheme with Bankman-Fried, in February, as part of the S.D.N.Y.’s superseding indictment. A few weeks later, F.B.I. agents raided his Maryland home and seized his and Bond’s phones. Is it a coincidence that his girlfriend is now being “investigated” for an unrelated campaign-finance violation? The S.B.F. trial begins in less than three months, and Salame hasn’t flipped yet.
Looks like things are happening and wondering what to make of it all. Former FTX exec Ryan Salame seeks to void guilty plea, says feds reneged on deal to end probe of his partner
Yeah, things are heating up 
One thing I don’t understand about the Michelle indictment: the Independent Examiner’s report clearly says that she did consulting work for FTX (page 150). The government clearly says in this indictment that she didn’t and that therefore her payment was a “sham.” And according to the indictment, Michelle variously claimed that she did and didn’t do consulting work for FTX (or something in between? she says “It’s a mess” at one point). So which is it?
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Interestingly, Salame’s motion to void his guilty plea never explicitly says that he is innocent. It just says that the government coerced him into pleading guilty by threatening to indict Bond if he didn’t. But the motion makes no sense unless he also believes he is innocent, and lied about it under pressure from the government.
I went back and checked and didn’t see him proclaiming innocence either (though always a chance I missed it). But maybe that is not the point at this stage.
What it does make me wonder is if others who pleaded guilty were also induced to do so through offers that never made it into legal documents, i.e. “star” witness Carolyn Ellison, who has yet to be sentenced.
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Wow, great foresight there. Well done.
He posted this a week after your post: x.com
Looking at the replies there are the expected “Shut up, fraud” posts, but also some suggesting that there is at least some solidarity. It might be in the depths of the internet at the moment, but you never know how things go…
Yes, he’s been more popular on X/twitter recently than I was expecting. Here’s a copy of the tweet you linked:
And the government’s reply: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.605906/gov.uscourts.nysd.605906.474.0.pdf Weirdly, it quickly disappeared from the CourtListener docket. Not sure what that was about but I managed to get a direct link.
@Maria, same. I don’t know if you remember, but Michael Lewis also treats Caroline with suspicion in that Opinion piece, albeit for different reasons: “If Sam was not responsible for what had happened, Caroline arguably was. And so she also had the most to gain from Sam being held responsible.”
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