Former FTX executive Ryan Salame will reportedly avoid testifying about his role in FTX’s alleged illegal campaign donation scheme if he is subpoenaed in Sam Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial.
Lawyers representing the former FTX co-CEO said that Salame will be unavailable as a witness to the case, according to an Aug. 14 motion filed by United States federal prosecutors.
“Salame’s attorney has represented that if subpoenaed, Salame would invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination,” the prosecutor’s motion states, adding that Salame would be “unavailable as a witness.”
From the US government’s motion in limine in the Sam Bankman-Fried criminal trial: “[Ryan] Salame is unavailable as a witness… Salame’s attorney has represented that if subpoenaed, Salame would invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.” pic.twitter.com/NrB5d6PJDH
Salame, a former co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets with close ties to Sam Bankman-Fried, donated more than $24 million to Republican campaigns, according to Open Secrets.
The former FTX executive is reportedly facing possible finance campaign violation allegations of his own and is considering a plea deal with the federal prosecutors.
He was a substantial beneficiary of loans and payments given to a number of the top executives of FTX by way of the now-bankrupt firms’ trading house Alameda Research.
Ms Sultana also said she was “resigning” from the Labour Party after 14 years.
She was suspended as a Labour MP shortly after they came to power last summer for voting against the government maintaining the two-child benefit cap.
Several others from the left of the party, including Mr Corbyn, were also suspended for voting against the government, and also remained as independent MPs.
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However, Ms Sultana was still a member of the Labour Party – until now.
Mr Corbyn has previously said the independent MPs who were suspended from Labour would “come together” to provide an “alternative.
The other four are: Iqbal Mohamed, Shockat Adam, Ayoub Khan and Adnan Hussain.
Mr Corbyn and the other four independents have not said if they are part of the new party Ms Sultana announced.
In her announcement, Ms Sultana said she would vote to abolish the two-child benefit cap again and also voted against scrapping the winter fuel payment for most pensioners.
Ms Sultana also voted against the government’s welfare bill this week, which was heavily watered down as Sir Keir Starmer tried to prevent a major rebellion from his own MPs.
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On Wednesday, Ms Sultana spoke passionately against Palestine Action being proscribed as a terror organisation – but MPs eventually voted for it to be.
She said to proscribe it is “a deliberate distortion of the law to chill dissent, criminalise solidarity and suppress the truth”.
Ms Sultana said they were founding the new party because “Westminster is broken but the real crisis is deeper – just 50 families now own more wealth than half the UK population”.
She called Reform leader Nigel Farage “a billionaire-backed grifter” leading the polls “because Labour has completely failed to improve people’s lives.
Image: Ms Sultana called Nigel Farage a ‘billionaire-backed grifter’. Pic: PA
The MP, who has spoken passionately about Gaza, added: “Across the political establishment, from Farage to Starmer, they smear people of conscience trying to stop a genocide in Gaza as terrorists.
“But the truth is clear: this government is an active participant in genocide. And the British people oppose it.
“We are not going to take this anymore.”
A Labour Party spokesperson said: “In just 12 months, this Labour government has boosted wages, delivered an extra four million NHS appointments, opened 750 free breakfast clubs, secured three trade deals and four interest rate cuts lowering mortgage payments for millions.
“Only Labour can deliver the change needed to renew Britain.”