Current:Home > MyFormer FTX executive Caroline Ellison faces sentencing -FutureWise Finance
Former FTX executive Caroline Ellison faces sentencing
View
Date:2025-04-17 22:31:39
NEW YORK (AP) — Caroline Ellison, a former top executive in Sam Bankman-Fried ’s fallen FTX cryptocurrency empire, faces the possibility of years in prison when she is sentenced Tuesday for fraud, but prosecutors said she deserves leniency for her “extraordinary cooperation” as they investigated the company.
Ellison, 29, pleaded guilty nearly two years ago and testified against Bankman-Fried for nearly three days at a trial last November.
In a court filing, prosecutors said said her testimony was the “cornerstone of the trial” against Bankman-Fried, 32, who was found guilty of fraud and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Asking the court for a lighter sentence, Ellison’s own lawyers cited both her testimony at the trial and the trauma of her off-and-on romantic relationship with Bankman-Fried — though they also stressed that she wasn’t trying to evade responsibility for her crimes.
“Caroline blames no one but herself for what she did,” her lawyers wrote in a court filing. “She regrets her role deeply and will carry shame and remorse to her grave.”
FTX was one of the world’s most popular cryptocurrency exchanges, known for its Superbowl TV ad and its extensive lobbying campaign in Washington, before it collapsed in 2022.
U.S. prosecutors accused Bankman-Fried and other top executives of looting customer accounts on the exchange to make risky investments, make millions of dollars of illegal political donations, bribe Chinese officials and buy luxury real estate in the Caribbean.
Ellison was chief executive at Alameda Research, a cryptocurrency hedge fund controlled by Bankman-Fried that was used to process some customer funds from FTX.
Her work relationship with Bankman-Fried was complicated by her romantic feelings for him, her lawyers wrote in a court filing.
“From the start, Mr. Bankman-Fried’s behavior was erratic and manipulative. He initially professed strong feelings for Caroline and suggested their liaison would develop into a full relationship. But after a few weeks, he would ‘ghost’ Caroline without explanation, avoiding her outside of work and refusing to respond to messages that were not work-related,” her lawyers said.
As the business began to faulter, Ellison divulged the massive fraud to employees who worked for her even before FTX filed for bankruptcy, her lawyers wrote.
Ultimately, she also spoke extensively with U.S. investigators.
“Ellison cooperated at great personal and professional cost, enduring harsh media and public scrutiny and attempted witness tampering by Bankman-Fried,” prosecutors wrote.
They said she was forthcoming about her own misconduct 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 candor, remorse, and seriousness,” they wrote. “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.”
Her testimony at the trial, they said, was credible and compelling.
Judge Lewis A. Kaplan will decide the sentence.
Since testifying at Bankman-Fried’s trial, Ellison has engaged in extensive charity work, written a novel and worked with her parents on a math enrichment textbook for advanced high school students, according to her lawyers.
They said she also now has a healthy romantic relationship and has reconnected with high school friends she had lost touch with while she worked for and sometimes dated Bankman-Fried from 2017 until late 2022.
veryGood! (3739)
Related
- Bodycam footage shows high
- Medication abortion is still possible with just one drug. Here's how it works
- Biden Names Ocasio-Cortez, Kerry to Lead His Climate Task Force, Bridging Democrats’ Divide
- Global Warming Is Pushing Pacific Salmon to the Brink, Federal Scientists Warn
- New data highlights 'achievement gap' for students in the US
- Check Out the Most Surprising Celeb Transformations of the Week
- Blinken says military communication with China still a work in progress after Xi meeting
- 4 tips for saying goodbye to someone you love
- Justice Department, Louisville reach deal after probe prompted by Breonna Taylor killing
- Climate Change Becomes an Issue for Ratings Agencies
Ranking
- Dick Vitale announces he is cancer free: 'Santa Claus came early'
- This Week in Clean Economy: Manufacturing Job Surge Seen for East Coast Offshore Wind
- 'Ghost villages' of the Himalayas foreshadow a changing India
- Pipeline Payday: How Builders Win Big, Whether More Gas Is Needed or Not
- Costco membership growth 'robust,' even amid fee increase: What to know about earnings release
- Blinken says military communication with China still a work in progress after Xi meeting
- Recovery high schools help kids heal from an addiction and build a future
- Climate Change Becomes an Issue for Ratings Agencies
Recommendation
Travis Hunter, the 2
Joy-Anna Duggar Gives Birth, Welcomes New Baby With Austin Forsyth
Submarine on expedition to Titanic wreckage missing with 5 aboard; search and rescue operation underway
Medicare tests a solution to soaring hospice costs: Let private insurers run it
Average rate on 30
How to Get Rid of a Pimple Fast: 10 Holy Grail Solutions That Work in Hours
Inmate dies after escape attempt in New Mexico, authorities say
These retailers and grocery stores are open on Juneteenth