There’s a sort of corporate professional that takes great pride in updating their LinkedIn as soon as they reach a new professional milestone or start a new position, but former FTX executive Ryan Salame might’ve taken things a bit too far.
Former FTX executive Ryan Salame has updated his LinkedIn to say “Inmate at FCI Cumberland” after being sentenced to 7.5 years in jail by the courts. “I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Inmate at FCI (Federal Correctional Institution) Cumberland,” Salame posted on his Linkedin. Salame was awarded the jail sentence for his role in running the Digital Markets Division of failed crypto exchange FTX, which collapsed along with $8 billion in customer funds.
Ryan Salame didn’t only share the update about his new “position”. He even added it to his experience, saying he’d be an Inmate full-time, and his role would be “On-site”. He described his job as “incarcerated”, and said he would be growing his skills at “cleaning at whittling.”
This is a dramatic turn in Ryan Salame’s LinkedIn journey. His LinkedIn says that he’d completed a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from UMass Amherst in 2015, and followed it up with a Masters in Science from GeorgeTown University in 2019. He had worked with crypto company circle, then with Alameda Research, before becoming the Co-Chief Executive Officer at FTX Digital Markets.
That’s when Salame’s career took its unusual trajectory. FTX had aggressively grown into becoming one of the most prominent global crypto brokers, but it suddenly collapsed in November 2022, and was unable to repay customer funds. After a long trial, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison, and it now turns out that Ryan Salame was awarded a 7.5 year sentence.
And Salame seems to have taken the development in his stride, and updated his LinkedIn accordingly. One wonders if the Federal Correctional Institution in Cumberland allows internet access, but if it does, one can expect a steady stream of updates from Salame about the skills he’s developing and the accolades he’s receiving in prison. FTX might’ve caused millions of people to lose their entire crypto holdings in one of the biggest frauds in history, but one can’t fault it for the entertainment value it has provided over the years.