FBI searches the $4 million home of former FTX exec Ryan Salame, report says

• Ryan Salame was the co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, FTX's Bahamian subsidiary.
• The FBI searched his Maryland home on Thursday morning, The New York Times reported.

The FBI searched the home of the former co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, Ryan Salame, on Thursday morning, The New York Times reported. FTX Digital Markets was the Bahamian subsidiary of Sam Bankman-Fried's fallen crypto exchange, FTX.

A photo seen by the Times showed FBI agents gathered outside Salame's $4 million home in Potomac, Maryland at around 7 a.m. ET. It was unclear what they were searching for, and Salame has not been formally accused of any crime.

Salame's attorney previously spoke to prosecutors on his client's behalf, and handed over information relating to campaign finance activity, two people familiar with the investigation told Bloomberg.

The former top FTX executive became a high-profile political donor after giving more than $23 million to mostly Republican candidates, per OpenSecrets. That ranked him as the country's 15th-top donor last year.

Bankman-Fried, the crypto exchange's former CEO, has pleaded not guilty to 13 criminal charges including conspiracy to defraud the Federal Election Commission and commit campaign finance violations.

Prosecutors allege Bankman-Fried funneled $100 million in political donations through FTX executives, which allowed him to exceed contribution limits.

The indictment says he was the real engine behind the Republican donations of one unnamed executive. The alleged scheme also allowed Bankman-Fried to hide that the money was actually coming from his hedge fund, Alameda, prosecutors said.

FTX imploded last November after a CoinDesk report suggested overly-close ties between Bankman-Fried's crypto exchange, FTX, and his hedge fund, Alameda, prompting customers to withdraw their funds.

But it didn't have enough money to fulfill demand, partially due to lavish spending by FTX executives – including a $65 billion line of credit that drew on customers' deposits, according to bankruptcy lawyers.

Salame reportedly threw up when he discovered FTX's impending collapse, according to The Wall Street Journal. According to the Financial Times, he tipped off Bahamian authorities about wrongdoing at the crypto exchange – leading to Bankman-Fried's arrest in the Caribbean nation last December.

The FBI and a lawyer for Salame did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, sent outside US working hours.