Former New York congressional candidate arrested on campaign finance charges

NEW YORK (AP) — A former New York congressional candidate was arrested Thursday on charges that she and her partner, an executive at failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, conspired to use the company’s money to illegally finance her campaign.

Michelle Bond, a 45-year-old from Potomac, Maryland, was released on $1 million bail after a brief appearance in Manhattan federal court, where she is accused of conspiring with Ryan Salame, former CEO of FTX Digital Markets, to obtain illegal campaign contributions in connection with her unsuccessful 2022 Republican primary bid on eastern Long Island.

Her lawyer did not immediately comment. A spokesman for prosecutors did not respond to a request for comment.

The accusations are the latest twist in the story of the downfall of FTX, which was one of the world’s most popular cryptocurrency trading platforms before it fell apart amid a barrage of accusations against its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried.

Last year, Salame pleaded guilty to campaign financing and illegal money transfers related to his work for the company and was sentenced in May to 7 1/2 years in prison.

The day before Bond was arrested, Salame asked a judge to overturn his guilty plea, saying prosecutors had suggested Bond would not be arrested if he pleaded guilty and dropped the case.

Salame said in court documents that he had complied with all terms of the plea agreement, including paying a $500,000 fine, $6 million in forfeitures and $5.5 million in restitution. He described Bond as his domestic partner and the mother of his 8-month-old child.

Bond was charged with conspiracy to cause illegal campaign contributions, causing and receiving excessive campaign contributions, causing and receiving an illegal corporate contribution, and causing and receiving a conduit for contributions. Each charge carries a potential sentence of up to five years in prison.

According to the allegations, Bond and Salame entered into a “sham consulting agreement” between Bond and FTX under which Bond received $400,000 shortly after she launched her congressional campaign.

The indictment alleges that Bond used the funds to illegally finance her campaign. Salame was found to have wired hundreds of thousands of dollars more to Bond between June and August 2022.

Although Salame held a senior executive position at FTX, he did not play a significant role in the government’s proceedings against Bankman-Fried at his trial earlier this year and did not testify against him.

In an attempt to obtain a more lenient sentence, Salame said at trial that he had cooperated with the defendant and even provided documents that helped prosecutors in cross-examining Bankman-Fried and even in his own prosecution.

Salame’s motion concerned illegal campaign contributions by politicians from both parties but did not specifically target Bond’s campaign.

Bond, who was once a lobbyist for the cryptocurrency industry, ran a well-funded campaign but ultimately lost the 2022 Republican primary to U.S. Rep. Nick LaLota, winning 28 percent of the vote in a three-candidate contest. The race drew attention at the time due to donations from cryptocurrency industry groups that were trying to persuade U.S. lawmakers to create a more welcoming regulatory environment.

Bankman-Fried was sentenced in March to 25 years in prison for defrauding hundreds of thousands of customers of FTX, a company that collapsed in November 2022.