FTX's Salame Hoped Dog Bite Would Delay Prison, But Tucker Carlson Derailed Effort

Policy
  • Ex-senior executive of failed crypto exchange FTX Ryan Salame kept trying to delay his prison arrival up to the last minute, but a judge decided his dog-bite claims fell short of keeping him from his 7.5-year sentence.
  • An interview Salame did with Tucker Carlson seems to have helped convince the federal judge that he was well enough to report to prison.

Former FTX executive Ryan Salame, convicted of violating U.S. election laws in his contribution of millions of dollars in the previous congressional elections, has been rebuffed in an 11th-hour attempt to delay his prison sentence to treat a dog bite to his face.

A defiant Salame, who had taken to social media to criticize his prosecution, was originally supposed to start serving more than seven years in prison on August 29 but told the court he'd been injured by a large German shepherd, leading to his reporting date being postponed to Oct. 11. He requested another extension earlier this week, ostensibly to continue treating the same dog bite.

But he sat for an interview with Tucker Carlson without obvious signs he's hampered by the wound – a fact noted by Judge Lewis Kaplan of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York when the court denied Salame's effort.

Salame had claimed a need for "urgent and necessary medical treatment and surgery" that wouldn't allow his immediate incarceration, and the prosecution had responded that he appeared to be doing fine. At a court appearance last month, he answered questions "with no signs of drooling or slurred speech," prosecutors contended, and then did his interview with Carlson – a conservative political commentator who had been a longtime fixture at Fox News – during which Salame "appears physically recovered and entirely unimpaired."

Salame has already benefited "from extremely generous postponements of the commencement of the term of imprisonment," the judge noted, adding the court's doubts about the "veracity" of Salame's claims.

The former CEO of an FTX subsidiary has publicly embraced his pending inmate status, noting on his LinkedIn page that he's started a role as an inmate, and featuring a prison picture on his page on X and wearing mock prisoner attire.

Prosecutors have also been pursuing his girlfriend, prominent crypto advocate Michelle Bond, for allegedly taking illegal campaign contributions from Salame during her failed run for Congress in New York.

Read More: Jailed FTX Exec Withdraws His Request to Compel Government to Abide by Plea Deal

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