The FBI conducted a search Thursday morning in the Potomac, Maryland, home of Ryan Salame, a former FTX executive who was a major campaign contributor for Republican political candidates, two people with knowledge of the matter said.
Mr. Salame, who ran FTX’s Bahamian subsidiary, was part of the close circle of advisers to Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the cryptocurrency exchange, before the company filed for bankruptcy in November.
Federal prosecutors have charged Mr. Bankman-Fried with orchestrating a major fraud and illegal campaign finance scheme at FTX. He has agreed to fight the charges. Three of his former top executives have pleaded guilty in connection with the investigation and have agreed to cooperate against his former boss.
Mr. Salame has come under particular scrutiny for the $24 million in campaign contributions he made during last year’s midterm elections. In court documents, federal authorities have claimed that most of the $90 million contributed to political candidates by a handful of former FTX employees, including Mr. Salame, was misappropriated from exchange clients.
The raid on Mr. Salame’s $4 million home indicates that federal authorities have not finished their investigation into the FTX collapse as they prepare for Mr. Bankman-Fried’s trial in October. They are examining a number of employees and advisers in the orbit of the former cryptocurrency mogul, including Bankman-Fried’s younger brother.
Jason Linder, an attorney for Salame, did not respond to a request for comment.
An FBI spokeswoman declined to comment.
It’s unclear what authorities were looking for during the search, which took place around 7 a.m., according to a person who sent a photo of FBI agents gathered outside the house to The New York Times.
A native of Sandisfield, Mass., a town in the Berkshires, Mr. Salame He worked for EY, the global accounting and consulting firm better known as Ernst & Young, before working for Mr. Bankman-Fried at Alameda Research, a Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency hedge fund.
He soon became one of Mr. Bankman-Fried’s most loyal and trusted lieutenants. After FTX moved to the Bahamas in 2021, Mr. Salame served as an intermediary between the company and the local government, and was appointed Co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, the exchange’s Bahamian trading entity.
Mr. Salame became enormously rich as the cryptocurrency market grew and FTX reached a valuation of $32 billion. FTX Insolvency Lawyers and Advisors said in march that Mr. Salame received $87 million in bonds and loans from Alameda. He was one of half a dozen top executives who received a total of $3.2 billion in payments.
Mr. Salame divided his time between Washington and the Bahamas, and began dating Michelle Bond, who ran a cryptocurrency lobby group and unsuccessfully campaigned for Congress as a Long Island Republican. At home in the Berkshires, Mr. Salame bought several local restaurants, some that were struggling during the height of the pandemic, earning him a reputation as a local hero.
Mr. Salame and Ms. Bond also bought the home that was raided Thursday, located in an upscale suburb of Washington, D.C.
Prosecutors have said Bankman-Fried orchestrated a “fake donor” scheme to bypass limits on campaign contributions, recruiting executives to serve as representatives for her company and donate tens of millions of dollars to both parties.
A revised indictment against Mr. Bankman-Fried recently identified Mr. Salame’s donations as part of the scheme and said the FTX founder wanted to keep his support for Republican politicians “dark”.
emily twirling contributed reporting.