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 Choose Lewis A. Kaplan mentioned Ellison’s cooperation was “very, very substantial” and “outstanding.”
However he mentioned a jail sentence was needed as a result of she had participated in what may be the “biggest monetary fraud ever perpetrated on this nation and possibly anyplace else” or a minimum of near it.
He mentioned in such a severe case, he couldn’t let cooperation be a get-out-of-jail-free card, even when it was clear that Bankman-Fried had change into “your kryptonite.”
“I’ve seen quite a lot of cooperators in 30 years right here. I’ve by no means seen one fairly like Ms. Ellison,” he mentioned.
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 via 2022.
“I’m deeply ashamed with what I’ve finished,” she mentioned, combating via tears to say she was “so so sorry” to everybody she had harmed immediately or not directly.
She didn’t converse 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” in opposition to 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 highly effective proof” in opposition to Bankman-Fried.
The prosecutor mentioned Ellison’s time on the witness stand was very completely different from Bankman-Fried, who she mentioned was “evasive, even contemptuous, and unable to reply questions immediately” when he testified.
Legal professional Anjan Sahni requested the decide to spare his consumer from jail, citing “uncommon circumstances,” together with her off-and-on romantic relationship with Bankman-Fried and the injury prompted when her “entire skilled and private life got here to revolve” round him.
FTX was one of many world’s hottest cryptocurrency exchanges, identified for its Superbowl TV advert and its in depth 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 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 workers 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 mentioned prosecutors had been impressed that Ellison didn’t “leap into the lifeboat” to flee her crimes however as a substitute spent almost two years absolutely cooperating.
Since testifying at Bankman-Fried’s trial, Ellison has engaged in in depth charity work, written a novel and labored together with her dad and mom on a math enrichment textbook for superior highschool college students, based on her attorneys.
They mentioned 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.
