FTX Fraud: Alameda’s former CEO, Caroline Ellison sentenced for 2 years, to forfeit $11bn

Former Alameda Research CEO, Caroline Ellison has been sentenced to serve for 24 months (two years) in prison by a U.S. federal judge on Tuesday. Ellison, who is 29, was the girlfriend of crypto company, FTX’s founder and CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried.

According to the sentence, Ellison will also forfeit about $11 billion. She could serve the sentence at a minimum-security facility near Boston, where her family lives. She will also spend three years on supervised release after she serves her term.

Recall that she testified against Bankman-Fried during his criminal trial last year, alleging he tried to bribe foreign officials and deliberately shared misleading financial data with lenders. Her testimony was a “cornerstone” in Bankman-Fried’s conviction, the prosecutors said in a memorandum ahead of Tuesday’s hearing.

Sam was convicted on all seven counts of fraud and conspiracy and sentenced to a 25-year jail term by a U.S. judge for stealing $8 billion from customers six months ago. Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon, one of the prosecutors who spearheaded Bankman-Fried’s trial mentioned in his remarks before the judge that Bankman-Fried is appealing the conviction.

The sentence marked the culmination of Bankman-Fried’s plunge from an ultra-wealthy entrepreneur and major political donor to the biggest trial, so far, in a crackdown by U.S. authorities on malfeasance in cryptocurrency markets.

Unlike Bankman-Fried, Ellison was proactively cooperative with the Department of Justice. Also evidently Bankman-Fried did not demonstrate remorse while Ellison did. According to the prosecutors, Bankman-Fried’s sentence was intended to deter him and others from committing similar crimes while Ellison’s sentence reflects her cooperation.

Ellison’s lawyer, Wilmer Hale Managing Partner Anjan Sahni, told the court that his client had been led astray by Bankman-Fried with whom she formerly had a romantic relationship. According to her lawyer, Ellison participated in the fraud scheme but after FTX’s collapse in her desire to please Bankman-Fried. “she has recovered her moral compass”, he said.

Judge Lewis A., during the trial, seemed sympathetic to Ellison: “You were vulnerable and you were exploited,” he said minutes before announcing his sentence. “You are genuinely remorseful.” He also noted Ellison’s cooperation, saying “I’ve seen a lot of cooperators in 30 years here, I’ve never seen one quite like Miss Ellison.”

He however remarked that FTX was one of the greatest financial frauds ever perpetrated in this country and that cooperation wasn’t enough to spare Ellison a spot in prison. “In a case this serious, to be a ‘get out of jail free’ card is not something I can see my way through to,” Kaplan said, before asking Ellison to rise and receive her sentence of 24 months in prison.

Because the crime is federal, Ellison will serve at least 75% of her sentence before being eligible for parole.

Ellison spoke briefly before the sentence and said she wanted to apologize to FTX and Alameda’s former customers, her former colleagues, friends and family. “The human brain is bad at comprehending big numbers. I can’t even begin to imagine the pain I’ve caused.,” she said.

Ellison has approximately 45 days before she is required to surrender herself voluntarily to the Bureau of Prisons to begin serving her sentence.

The future for FTX

FTX and its subsidiaries, which are now headed by new management headed by restructuring chief and CEO John Ray, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on November 11, 2022, recovering charitable donations, misappropriated funds, and fraudulent payments have been paramount. The company has since been aggressively pursuing legal means to recover customer funds.

For instance, the company filed a suit to return $71.6 million in allegedly commingled corporate and customer funds related to investments and donations to life sciences companies.

The suit claims that the FTX Foundation and Latona donated funds to six life sciences companies for the personal benefit of SBF and Rheingans-Yoo and without any benefit to Alameda Research or FTX.