Former FTX executive is locked up on LinkedIn and in federal prison

Former FTX co-CEO Ryan Salame updated his LinkedIn profile to add a new role: inmate at a federal penitentiary. “I am excited to share that I am starting a new inmate position at FCI Cumberland!” He said in a post above an animated image commemorating his new position.

Salame’s work history includes working at many prestigious cryptocurrency companies. He worked in the OTC cryptocurrency trading department at Circle, was the head of the OTC department at Alameda Research (one of FTX’s divisions), and eventually became co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets. Now he has added another job to the list: a full-time inmate at FCI Cumberland. His skills? Cleaning and planing.

The post went viral on LinkedIn and has garnered over 1,000 comments as of this writing. It was so popular that it broke security and spread to other social media sites like X, where it was posted too many times to count. We love it when someone convicted of a crime takes it good-naturedly, especially when those crimes are financial in nature.

Salame was part of the FTX leadership team, where he worked closely with founder Sam Bankman-Fried and chief engineer Nishad Singh. FTX was successful in the cryptocurrency industry for a while, but it turned out that the company was robbing Peter to pay Paul. Currently, most of its directors are in prison.

Last September, Salame pleaded guilty to using FTX cash to donate tens of millions of dollars to political campaigns on both sides of the aisle. The goal was to persuade politicians to adopt cryptocurrency-friendly regulations. According to the Department of Justice, Salame and FTX made more than $300 million in political contributions and lied about the source of the money.

“Ryan Salame agreed to advance the interests of FTX, Alameda Research and its associates through an unlawful political influence campaign and unlicensed money transfer activity that helped FTX grow faster and larger by operating outside the law,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement on about the Salame judgment. “Salame’s involvement in two serious federal crimes has undermined public confidence in U.S. elections and the integrity of the financial system. “Today’s verdict highlights the significant consequences of such crimes.”

Salame is 30 years old and if he serves his entire sentence, he will not be allowed to update his LinkedIn profile again for more than seven years. In addition to time spent behind bars, Salame agreed to forfeit $1.5 billion and pay an additional $6 million in forfeiture and more than $5 million in restitution.

Salame is one of the more severe sentences handed down after the collapse of FTX. Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $11 billion. His on-again, off-again girlfriend and head of Alameda Research, Caroline Ellison, was jailed for two years. Singh and executive director Gary Wang are still waiting for a verdict on their fate, which the court will announce on October 20 and November 20, respectively.

We’ll have to keep an eye on their LinkedIn profiles to see how well they take it.