The FBI has reportedly raided the home of former FTX co-CEO Ryan Salame amid further scrutiny of his role as a close advisor to Sam Bankman-Fried.
The New York Times reported on April 27, citing people familiar with the matter, that the FBI searched Salam's $4 million home in Potomac, Maryland, that morning. It was not immediately clear what authorities were looking for. Salame is co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, the Bahamas-based subsidiary of FTX.
Salame was the primary benefit of questionable loans and payments made to various FTX executives through the now-bankrupt company's trading firm, Alameda Research.
Salam was the fourth-biggest recipient of those payments, receiving a total of $87 million in compensation. Bankman-Fried received $2.2 billion, while former engineering director Nishad Singh and co-founder Zixiao “Gary” Wang received $587 million and $246 million, respectively . FTX's new management, led by attorney and bankruptcy expert John Ray III, said at the time that it would further investigate its rights to potential action against the recipient and its subsequent assignees, and that the ongoing effort "It is expected to result in fur the identification of assets, liabilities and transfers."
It added that it was evaluating different ways to recover funds from former executives.
According to a Bahamas court filing dated Dec. 14, 2022, Salame was the first executive of either FTX or Alameda Research to begin assisting authorities in their investigation. Salame reported to the Securities Commission of the Bahamas (SCB) on Nov. 9 that FTX sent client funds to its sister trading firm, Alameda Research. Additionally, Salame told SCB that the funds would "recover Alameda's financial losses" and that "their clients did not allow or consent to the transfer".
He also informed Standard Chartered that only three individuals had the authority to transfer client assets to Alameda: Bankman-Fried, Wang and Singh. Salam is one of the top political donors in the 2022 election, donating more than $23 million to Republican campaigns through more than 200 individual donations, according to Open Secrets, a government donation tracking service.
