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Ryan Salame, a top executive at the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison on Tuesday, making him the first of Sam Bankman-Frieds circle of advisers at FTX to receive prison time.

Mr. Salame, 30, a trusted lieutenant of Mr. Bankman-Fried, the exchanges founder, pleaded guilty last year to a campaign finance law violation and a charge of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. He is one of four top deputies in the FTX empire who have pleaded guilty to crimes since the company imploded in November 2022.

Mr. Salames sentence exceeded the five to seven years that prosecutors had recommended. Defense lawyers had asked for 18 months.

Wearing a blue suit and socks emblazoned with the Bitcoin logo, Mr. Salame stood facing Judge Lewis A. Kaplan as the sentence was read aloud in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Judge Kaplan called Mr. Salames crimes astonishing.

The state of our political life in this country is in jeopardy, he said. Efforts like that undertaken by Mr. Salame and Bankman-Fried only make matters worse.

Mr. Salame is set to surrender on Aug. 29. His lawyers requested that he serve his sentence at the federal prison in Cumberland, Md., near his home. Mr. Bankman-Fried is serving a 25-year sentence, after he was convicted of fraud and conspiracy at a trial last year.

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Ryan Salame, FTX Executive, Gets Seven and a Half Year Prison Sentence - The New York Times