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 clients.
U.S. District Choose Lewis A. Kaplan stated Ellison’s cooperation was “very, very substantial” and “outstanding.”
However he stated a jail sentence was essential as a result of she had participated in what could be the “biggest monetary fraud ever perpetrated on this nation and doubtless anyplace else” or no less than 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 number of cooperators in 30 years right here. I’ve by no means seen one fairly like Ms. Ellison,” he stated.
She was ordered to report back to jail Nov. 7.
Ellison, 29, pleaded responsible almost two years in the past and testified in opposition to Bankman-Fried for almost three days at a trial final November.
At sentencing, she emotionally apologized to anybody harm by the fraud that stretched from 2017 by 2022.
“I’m deeply ashamed with what I’ve accomplished,” she stated, preventing by 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 courtroom, surrounded by legal professionals.
In a courtroom submitting, prosecutors had referred to as her testimony the “cornerstone of the trial” in opposition to Bankman-Fried, 32, who was discovered responsible of fraud and sentenced to 25 years in jail.
In courtroom Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Lawyer Danielle Sassoon referred to as for leniency, saying her testimony was “devastating and highly effective proof” in opposition to Bankman-Fried.
The prosecutor stated Ellison’s time on the witness stand was very completely different from Bankman-Fried, who she stated was “evasive, even contemptuous, and unable to reply questions instantly” when he testified.
Lawyer Anjan Sahni requested the decide to spare his shopper from jail, citing “uncommon circumstances,” together with her off-and-on romantic relationship with Bankman-Fried and the harm brought on when her “complete skilled and private life got here 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 change to make dangerous investments, make thousands and 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 huge fraud to staff who labored for her even earlier than FTX filed for chapter, trial proof confirmed.
In the end, she additionally spoke extensively with legal and civil U.S. investigators.
Sassoon stated prosecutors have been impressed that Ellison didn’t “soar into the lifeboat” to flee her crimes however as a substitute spent almost two years totally cooperating.
Since testifying at Bankman-Fried’s trial, Ellison has engaged in intensive charity work, written a novel and labored along with her dad and mom on a math enrichment textbook for superior highschool college students, based on her legal professionals.
They stated she additionally now has a wholesome romantic relationship and has reconnected with highschool associates she had misplaced contact with whereas she labored for and typically dated Bankman-Fried from 2017 till late 2022.
