Ryan Salame, once a high-ranking executive at bankrupt cryptocurrency company FTX, shared on LinkedIn this week that he is starting a new position — as an inmate in federal prison.

Salame was co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, an FTX subsidiary based in the Bahamas.

FTX operated a crypto exchange and hedge fund before it collapsed in 2022 due to a massive fraud scheme by its founder Sam Bankman-Fried. SBF, as he is known, is currently serving his own prison sentence after being convicted of looting the company he founded.

Salame is said to have received $55 million in loans from the company. He was accused of using money from FTX to donate to political campaigns.

Salame pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance laws and operating an illegal money transfer business. He was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison and agreed to forfeit $1.5 billion.

In an interview with The New York Times Before beginning his prison sentence, Salame claimed he had not committed the crimes he had confessed to and pleaded guilty to poor legal advice.

What did Ryan Salame’s LinkedIn post say?

“I am pleased to announce that I am starting a new position as an inmate at FCI Cumberland!” Salame wrote on LinkedIn on Thursday.

The post was in the form of a LinkedIn message, intended to be sent when a job seeker has started a new position. FCI Cumberland is a medium-security federal prison in Maryland.

Salame’s update has over 13,000 reactions, 1,200 comments and 900 reposts.

“Today I learned that people are still using LinkedIn,” Salame wrote in response to X.

What was FTX trading?

FTX was a centralized crypto exchange that supported trading of popular cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Investors could bet on the stock market using the FTX token, known as FTT. The token was traded on cryptocurrency markets in a similar manner to stock trading.

FTX filed for bankruptcy in November 2022 after it was revealed that customer funds had been misused. The company allegedly used billions of dollars in customer deposits to cover losses and finance risky investments by its sister hedge fund Alameda Research. This revelation triggered a run on the exchange and a mass withdrawal of funds that FTX was unable to meet.

A federal investigation followed and SBF was charged with fraud and money laundering, leading to a high-profile trial that further eroded trust in the crypto industry. Given the scale of the collapse and the regulatory scrutiny that followed, the case was compared to major financial scandals such as Enron.

How is FTX connected to Sam Bankman-Fried?

SBF was a co-founder of FTX. He founded the company with Gary Wang in 2019.

He was convicted in 2022 of seven federal charges, including wire fraud, commodities fraud, securities fraud, money laundering and violations of campaign finance laws. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Who is Michelle Bond?

Michelle Bond is Salame’s wife. SBF originally brought the two together, who first met at a shared dinner during a cryptocurrency conference in 2021.

Later that year, Salame and Bond began dating.

Bond reportedly received $400,000 in consulting fees from FTX Digital Markets. Bond was running for Congress in Long Island, NY at the time. Prosecutors claimed she spent the money on her campaign. She lost the August 2022 Republican primary.

Bond was also charged with campaign finance violations by the same U.S. Attorney’s Office that indicted her husband. She was charged in August and is awaiting trial.

Salame and Bond married in a small ceremony in Nevada last month.