Tired of LinkedIn posts filled with clichés like “congratulations” and “well deserved”? Ryan Salame, convicted former FTX executive, offered something different. He announced his next career move: serving time at a federal penitentiary in Maryland.
“I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Inmate at FCI Cumberland,” he posted to Microsoft’s online networking platform on Thursday, complete with the cheerful digital graphic that accompanies job announcements on LinkedIn.
It’s unusual that someone so openly pokes fun at his own predicament.
After all, Salame is looking at spending the next seven and a half years in an orange jumpsuit, assuming he serves out his full sentence.
But perhaps he took inspiration from “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli, the Turing CEO convicted of securities fraud. On his LinkedIn profile, Shkreli explained a five-year career break in the New York City metropolitan area simply by writing: “I went to prison.”
His post has already received more than 7,500 likes, over 800 comments, and been shared close to 600 times.
‘LinkedIn was invented for this very post’
This time, though, the best part is the replies. Too numerous to count or list here, they are all dripping with the kind of gallows humor rarely found on a site known for its steady stream of boilerplate well wishes.
“LinkedIn was invented for this very post, and I will not be convinced otherwise,” wrote Igor Khrestin, managing director of global policy of the George W. Bush Institute.
LinkedIn users danced on Salame’s figurative grave because FTX had become one of the most hated companies in America.
It marked the biggest corporate fraud since Elizabeth Holmes founded fake blood diagnostics firm Theranos.
Run by self-described altruist Sam Bankman-Fried—who once played host to Bill Clinton and Tony Blair—FTX ended up the villain after stealing client funds to cover gambling bets by its sibling crypto hedge fund, Alameda Research.
FTX collapse marked the peak of crypto winter
The November 2022 collapse of FTX marked the peak of a long crypto winter, during which various scandals brought disrepute to an entire industry that served a new breed of digitally savvy consumers.
In 2020 and 2021, millions around the world sought freedom and security from the constant whirr of the central bank printing press by unbanking themselves.
For these people, cryptocurrencies were a refuge from the traditional financial system and paper money backed only by government fiat.
Bankman-Fried, Salame, and other accomplices, such as Caroline Ellison, betrayed their trust when they conspired to plug holes in their risky speculation with funds FTX was supposed to hold as a custodian.
Worse, Bankman-Fried repeatedly attempted to deflect criticism and portray his fraud in a more flattering light.
Salame’s boss was eventually sentenced to 25 years behind bars.
Not everyone cared for Salame’s tongue-in-cheek humor, however.
Wisconsin-based public relations professional Jeremy Tunis called the post a case study in “how to generate zero sympathy”.
Instead of the “cringe and tone deaf” announcement, he argued Salame would have been better advised to publish a letter to all the victims of the FTX fraud acknowledging the pain he caused.
