Caroline Ellison, a former prime govt in Sam Bankman-Fried ’s fallen FTX cryptocurrency empire, was sentenced to 2 years in jail on Tuesday after she apologized repeatedly to everybody harm by a fraud that stole billions of {dollars} from buyers, lenders and prospects.
U.S. District Decide Lewis A. Kaplan stated Ellison’s cooperation was “very, very substantial” and “remarkable.”
However he stated a jail sentence was obligatory as a result of she had participated in what could be the “greatest financial fraud ever perpetrated in this country and probably anywhere else” or at the least near it.
He stated in such a critical case, he couldn’t let cooperation be a get-out-of-jail-free card, even when it was clear that Bankman-Fried had grow to be “your kryptonite.”
“I’ve seen a lot of cooperators in 30 years here. I’ve never seen one quite like Ms. Ellison,” he stated.
She was ordered to report back to jail Nov. 7.
Ellison, 29, pleaded responsible practically two years in the past and testified towards Bankman-Fried for practically three days at a trial final November.
At sentencing, she emotionally apologized to anybody harm by the fraud that stretched from 2017 by means of 2022.
“I’m deeply ashamed with what I’ve done,” she stated, preventing by means of tears to say she was “so so sorry” to everybody she had harmed instantly or not directly.
She didn’t communicate as she left Manhattan federal court docket, surrounded by attorneys.
In a court docket submitting, prosecutors had referred to as her testimony the “cornerstone of the trial” towards Bankman-Fried, 32, who was discovered responsible of fraud and sentenced to 25 years in jail.
In court docket Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Legal professional Danielle Sassoon referred to as for leniency, saying her testimony was “devastating and powerful proof” towards Bankman-Fried.
The prosecutor stated Ellison’s time on the witness stand was very totally different from Bankman-Fried, who she stated was “evasive, even contemptuous, and unable to answer questions directly” when he testified.
Legal professional Anjan Sahni requested the choose to spare his consumer from jail, citing “unusual circumstances,” together with her off-and-on romantic relationship with Bankman-Fried and the harm triggered when her “whole professional and personal life came to revolve” round him.
FTX was one of many world’s hottest cryptocurrency exchanges, recognized for its Superbowl TV advert and its intensive lobbying marketing campaign in Washington, earlier than it collapsed in 2022.
U.S. prosecutors accused Bankman-Fried and different prime executives of looting buyer accounts on the trade to make dangerous investments, make hundreds of thousands of {dollars} of unlawful political donations, bribe Chinese language officers and purchase luxurious actual property within the Caribbean.
Ellison was chief govt at Alameda Analysis, a cryptocurrency hedge fund managed by Bankman-Fried that was used to course of some buyer funds from FTX.
Because the enterprise started to falter, Ellison divulged the large fraud to staff who labored for her even earlier than FTX filed for chapter, trial proof confirmed.
Finally, she additionally spoke extensively with felony and civil U.S. investigators.
Sassoon stated prosecutors have been impressed that Ellison didn’t “jump into the lifeboat” to flee her crimes however as an alternative spent practically two years absolutely cooperating.
Since testifying at Bankman-Fried’s trial, Ellison has engaged in intensive charity work, written a novel and labored together with her mother and father on a math enrichment textbook for superior highschool college students, in keeping with her attorneys.
They stated she additionally now has a wholesome romantic relationship and has reconnected with highschool pals she had misplaced contact with whereas she labored for and typically dated Bankman-Fried from 2017 till late 2022.
