Caroline Ellison, former FTX exec and Sam Bankman-Fried's ex-girlfriend, sentenced to 2 years in prison
Caroline Ellison, whose testimony helped convict her former boss and ex-boyfriend, disgraced cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried, was sentenced Tuesday to two years in prison for fraud and conspiracy.
Caroline Ellison, whose testimony helped convict her former boss and ex-boyfriend, disgraced cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried, was sentenced Tuesday to two years in prison for fraud and conspiracy.
U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan sentenced Ellison in New York City to 24 months and ordered her to forfeit $11 billion for her involvement in the collapse of Bankman-Fried's crypto exchange company, FTX. She had faced a maximum sentence of about 110 years.
Ellison, 29, accepted a plea deal on charges of conspiracy and financial fraud in December 2022, a month after FTX spiraled into bankruptcy. She testified against Bankman-Fried for nearly three days at his trial in November.
Bankman-Fried was convicted of all seven criminal fraud charges against him and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Prosecutors said in a court filing that Ellison's testimony was the "cornerstone of the trial."
Lawyers for Ellison had asked that she be sentenced to time served and supervised release, citing her cooperation. In a court document filed this month, her lawyers said she made a swift return to the U.S. in 2022 from FTX’s headquarters in the Bahamas and voluntarily cooperated with the U.S. attorney’s office.
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