Former FTX executive's wife embezzled customer funds to fund politicians' elections, and FTX's final criminal trial is about to begin.

Former FTX executive Ryan Salame's wife, Michelle Bond, faces four criminal charges for using FTX funds to finance her 2022 congressional campaign, and the judge has dismissed her motion to dismiss, allowing the case to proceed.
(Background: SBF was exposed for "taking antidepressants daily," and the Cursor shares sold at a bargain price of $200k are now worth $3 billion)
(Additional background: Was the FTX hacker SBF himself? New CEO: SBF, under orders from the Bahamian government, infiltrated FTX and transferred assets)

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• Prosecution charges: $400k consulting fee plus hundreds of thousands of dollars in remittances
• Firsthand evidence from former FTX steward
• Parallel events: The aftershocks of SBF’s FTX collapse

U.S. District Judge George Daniels in Manhattan has denied Michelle Bond’s motion to dismiss the charges, ruling that the case will continue. The wife of former FTX executive Ryan Salame, Michelle Bond, is accused of using FTX funds to support her 2022 congressional campaign, facing four criminal charges, each carrying a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

Prosecution charges: $400k consulting fee plus hundreds of thousands of dollars in remittances

According to the prosecution’s allegations:

• Michelle Bond received $400k from FTX through a consulting agreement
• Salame transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional funds
• Bond concealed the source of the funds and made false statements to the Federal Election Commission
• She faces four charges, each with a maximum of five years imprisonment

Bond previously claimed that prosecutors had promised not to prosecute her in exchange for Salame’s guilty plea, but after reviewing the plea agreement, the judge confirmed that no such promise was made.

Firsthand evidence from former FTX steward

Ryan Salame was an early employee of FTX. He pleaded guilty in 2025 and provided key testimony about the flow of FTX funds, becoming the first critical witness in the FTX case family. Although his wife Michelle’s campaign may seem minor, it is an extension of the same incident.

In 2022, Bond ran for Congress in Florida’s 5th District but ultimately lost to a Republican candidate. This campaign was her way of verifying FTX’s liquidity “initial capital,” and also revealed how FTX funds flowed from the Bahamas to Washington.

Parallel events: The aftershocks of SBF’s FTX collapse

Cases related to FTX’s collapse continue to unfold. In the past week:

• Two bipartisan senators proposed a resolution to oppose SBF’s presidential pardon
• The New York Magazine reported that SBF takes antidepressants daily in prison and has created a “vegetarian prison menu”
• FTX’s Cursor shares, sold for $200k in 2023, soared in value to $3 billion after SpaceX’s acquisition

This suggests that even though the main trial of FTX concluded in 2025, the ripple effects of related cases are still expanding into mid-2026. If this is the final criminal case related to FTX’s collapse, then the “case closure countdown” for FTX has already entered its final stage.