Convicted FTX Executive Announces His “New Role” as Inmate on LinkedIn
Tired of LinkedIn posts filled with clichés like “congratulations” and “you deserve it”? Ryan Salame, a convicted former FTX executive, offered something different. He announced his next career move: serving time in a federal penitentiary in Maryland, USA.
“I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as an Inmate at FCI Cumberland,” he posted on Microsoft’s online networking platform on Thursday, accompanied by a cheerful digital graphic typical of job ads on LinkedIn.
It’s unusual for someone to so openly mock their own situation.
After all, Salame faces the prospect of spending the next seven and a half years in an orange jumpsuit, assuming he serves his entire sentence.
But perhaps he was inspired by Martin Shkreli, the “pharma bro” and CEO of Turing, convicted of securities fraud. On his LinkedIn profile, Shkreli explained a five-year career break in the New York metropolitan area by simply writing, “I went to prison.”
Salame’s post has already received more than 7,500 likes and more than 800 comments, and has been shared almost 600 times.
“LinkedIn was created for this type of post”
This time, however, the best thing is the answers. So numerous that they cannot be counted or listed here, they all brim with the kind of sarcastic humor rarely found on a site known for its steady stream of cookie-cutter congratulatory wishes.
“LinkedIn was created for this kind of posting, and I won’t be convinced otherwise,” wrote Igor Khrestin, managing director of global policy at the George W. Bush Institute.
LinkedIn users danced on Salame’s figurative grave because FTX became one of the most hated companies in America.
It was the biggest corporate fraud since Elizabeth Holmes founded the fake blood diagnostics company Theranos.
Run by self-described altruist Sam Bankman-Fried—who once hosted Bill Clinton and Tony Blair—FTX became the villain after stealing client funds to cover gambling bets from his crypto hedge fund, Alameda Research.
FTX Collapse Marked the Peak of “Crypto Winter”
The collapse of FTX in November 2022 marked the culmination of a long “Crypto Winter,” during which multiple scandals tarnished the reputation of an industry that catered to a new generation of digitally savvy consumers.
In 2020 and 2021, millions around the world sought freedom and security from the constant hum of the central bank printing press as it bankrupted itself.
For these people, cryptocurrencies were a refuge from the traditional financial system and government-backed paper money.
Bankman-Fried, Salame and other accomplices, such as Caroline Ellison, betrayed that trust by conspiring to plug holes in their risky speculations with funds that FTX was supposed to hold in custody.
Worse still, Bankman-Fried repeatedly tried to deflect criticism and portray his fraud in a more favorable light.
Salame’s boss was eventually sentenced to 25 years in prison.
However, not everyone appreciated Salame’s sarcastic humor.
Wisconsin public relations professional Jeremy Tunis called the post a case study in “how to generate zero sympathy.”
Instead of the “uncomfortable and insensitive” announcement, he argued that Salame would have been better advised to publish a letter to all victims of the FTX fraud acknowledging the pain he caused.
