Former FTX executive Ryan Salame took to LinkedIn to humorously announce his new position as an inmate at FCI Cumberland, where he will serve a seven-and-a-half-year prison sentence that began on Friday, according to the Daily Mail.
“I’m happy to share I’m starting a new position as an inmate at FCI Cumberland,” the 31-year-old wrote on the platform on Wednesday, just two days before his incarceration. He also listed “cleaning and whittling” as skills relevant to his new role.
Salame, who previously served as co-CEO of FTX’s Bahamian subsidiary and was part of founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s inner circle, was sentenced in May after pleading guilty to campaign finance violations and operating an illegal money-transmitting business. His sentence stems from fraud and campaign finance charges linked to the collapse of Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange in 2022, during which over $8 billion in customer funds went missing.
In a recent interview with the New York Times, Salame maintained his innocence regarding the charges, asserting that FTX lawyers had approved the donations he made and that he only pleaded guilty due to misguided legal advice.
In November 2022, he alerted authorities that FTX customer funds were being misused to settle debts at Alameda Research, the hedge fund co-founded by Bankman-Fried’s then-girlfriend, Caroline Ellison. Known for his active social media presence, Salame has criticized his legal team and expressed support for former President Donald Trump following his speech at a Bitcoin conference in Nashville.
