Former U.S. attorney Marc Litt joined “Fox & Friends Weekend” to discuss the background to the extradition and how SBF’s ex-girlfriend allegedly cooperated with authorities.
Small town in western Massachusetts braces for potential fallout from FTX collapse cryptocurrency exchange after former FTX executive Ryan Salame invested $6 million in restaurants and small businesses in the city. The bankruptcy of FTX and its subsidiaries probably wiped out the funds of countless investorsraising concerns about the spread of financial difficulties to other companies linked directly or indirectly to FTX.
Salame, who was the co-CEO of FTX Digital, has reportedly invested approximately $6 million in several restaurants and small businesses in Lenox, Massachusetts, since the summer of 2021. Lenox is a quaint town of approximately 5,000 residents located in the Western Massachusetts Berkshire. County about 20 miles from Salame’s home town of Sandisfield.
the Berkshire eagle reported that Salame owns several restaurants in Lenox, including Firefly Gastropub & Catering Co., The Olde Heritage Tavern, Sweet Dreams Bakery and Ice Cream Shop, and a food truck called The Lunch Pail, among others. Salame is believed to primarily reside in the Bahamas, where FTX is headquartered, and is not involved in day-to-day small business management.
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Sandisfield native Ryan Salame stands in November 2021 outside the Firefly Gastropub. (Gillian Jones/Berkshire Eagle)
As an air of uncertainty lingered following the collapse of FTX, the Eagle reported that there had been small outdoor sign of change in local businesses, and they continued to operate as usual in the weeks following the implosion of the crypto company and its subsidiaries.
According to bankruptcy filings, Salame received a $55 million loan from Alameda Research – the hedge fund and trading arm of FTX that Sam Bankman Fried co-founded. Bankman-Fried reportedly received a $1 billion personal loan from Alameda while former FTX engineering chief Nishad Singh secured a $543 million loan from the hedge fund.
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Ryan Salame has invested over $6 million in downtown Lenox’s restaurant scene and now owns nearly half of the commercial district’s full-service dining establishments. On Friday, Salame’s headquarters, FTX Group, filed for bankruptcy protection. (Gillian Jones/Berkshire Eagle)
Salame made headlines last week after Arrest of Bankman-Fried in the Bahamas on Monday when Bahamian officials claimed in court documents filed Wednesday that Salame informed them on November 9 that client assets “which may have been held” on the FTX exchange had been transferred to Alameda to “cover financial losses” of the hedge fund.
He reportedly warned that the transfers “were not authorized or consented to” by customers and said the only people authorized to make the unauthorized transfers were Bankman-Fried, Singh and co-founder Zixiao “Gary” Wang.
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By a tally, Ryan Salame’s donations to the 2022 midterm elections ranked him 11th in the country among donors to either of the two major parties. (Gillian Jones/Berkshire Eagle)
At the time, FTX was under increasing financial pressure as the exchange suffered the crypto equivalent of a bank run caused by a $6 billion increase in customer withdrawals. FTX, which was once valued at $32 billion, and its subsidiaries Filing for bankruptcy on November 11.
the Wall Street Journal previously reported that Caroline Ellison, who was the CEO of Alameda, told Alameda staff in early November that FTX had used client funds to shore up Alameda’s finances and that she, Bankman-Fried and other members of the companies’ management were aware of the decision.
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As of Dec. 18, Bankman-Fried is the only FTX or Alameda executive to be charged with a crime. He faces eight federal charges face a maximum combined sentence of 115 years in prison.
Fox Business’ Breck Dumas contributed to this story.
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