NEW YORK — Caroline Ellison, a former top executive in Sam Bankman-Fried’s defunct FTX cryptocurrency empire, faces up to five years in jail when she is sentenced Tuesday for fraud, but prosecutors say she merits mercy for her “extraordinary cooperation” as they probed the company.
Ellison, 29, pleaded guilty over two years ago and testified against Bankman-Fried for nearly three days during a trial in November.
In a court document, prosecutors stated that her testimony was the “cornerstone of the trial” against Bankman-Fried, 32, who was convicted of fraud and sentenced to 25 years in jail.
Former FTX Executive Caroline Ellison Faces Sentencing
Ellison’s lawyers asked the court for a reduced sentence, citing both her evidence at trial and the pain of her off-and-on love involvement with Bankman-Fried — though they also highlighted that she was not attempting to avoid responsibility for her crimes.
“Caroline blames no one but herself for what she did,” her attorneys stated in a court document. “She regrets her role deeply and will carry shame and remorse to her grave.”
Before its collapse in 2022, FTX was one of the world’s most prominent cryptocurrency exchanges, recognised for its Super Bowl TV ad and intensive lobbying campaign in Washington.
U.S. prosecutors accused Bankman-Fried and other top executives of using client accounts on the exchange to make dangerous trades, illicit political donations worth millions of dollars, bribe Chinese officials, and purchase luxury Caribbean real estate.
Ellison was the CEO of Alameda Research, a cryptocurrency hedge fund operated by Bankman-Fried that handled part of FTX’s customer funds.
Her romantic sentiments for Bankman-Fried impacted her job relationship, according to her lawyers in a court document.
“From the beginning, Mr. Bankman-Fried’s behaviour was unpredictable and manipulative. He first expressed great feelings for Caroline and suggested that their liaison would lead to a full partnership. But after a few weeks, he would ‘ghost’ Caroline without explanation, avoiding her outside of work and refusing to respond to non-work-related texts,” her lawyers claimed.
As the company began to flounder, Ellison revealed the vast fraud to employees who worked for her before FTX declared bankruptcy, according to her lawyers.
Ultimately, she spoke extensively with US investigators.
“Ellison cooperated at great personal and professional cost, enduring harsh media and public scrutiny and attempted witness tampering by Bankman-Fried,” according to prosecutors.
They stated that she was open about her misbehaviour and was “uniquely positioned to explain not only the what and how of Bankman-Fried’s crimes, but also the why.”
“In her many meetings with the Government, Ellison approached her cooperation with remarkable candour, remorse, and seriousness,” their letter stated. “She dedicated herself to extensive document review that helped identify key corroborating documents in an investigation hamstrung by Bankman-Fried’s systematic destruction of evidence.”
Former FTX Executive Caroline Ellison Faces Sentencing
They described her testimony at the trial as credible and riveting.
Judge Lewis A. Kaplan will determine the sentencing.
According to her lawyers, since testifying in Bankman-Fried’s trial, Ellison has done substantial charitable work, written a novel, and collaborated with her parents on a math enrichment textbook for advanced high school students.
They also stated that she now has a healthy love relationship and has reconnected with high school classmates she had lost contact with while working for and occasionally dating Bankman-Fried from 2017 to late 2022.
SOURCE | AP
