Caroline Ellison, former CEO of Alameda Analysis LLC, arrives in courtroom in New York, U.S., Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023.
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Legal professionals for Caroline Ellison, the star witness within the prosecution of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, are recommending that she not go to jail for his or her consumer’s position within the collapse of the crypto empire run by her former boss and ex-boyfriend.
In a court case Attorneys mentioned Tuesday evening that at most Ellison needs to be sentenced to time served and supervised launch due to her immediate return to the U.S. from FTX’s Bahamas headquarters in 2022 and her option to voluntarily cooperate with U.S. prosecutors and monetary regulators in serving to them determine what went unsuitable at FTX and subsidiary hedge fund Alameda Analysis.
Decide Louis Kaplan, who presided over the Bankman-Fried case, cited Ellison’s testimony when he determined in March to condemn the founding father of FTX to 25 years behind bars.
Ellison, who runs Alameda Analysis, agreed to a plea deal in December 2022a month after FTX went bankrupt. In contrast to Bankman-Fried, who was convicted of all seven expenses of legal fraud in opposition to him, Ellison pleaded guilty on expenses of conspiracy and monetary fraud somewhat than go to trial.
Tuesday’s assertion additionally cited the courtroom’s probation division’s advice that Ellison obtain a sentence of “time served with three years of supervised launch” as credit score for her “excellent cooperation with the federal government” and her “in any other case unblemished report.” The attorneys added that the division’s efficiency report, which cited quite a few character testimonies talking to Ellison’s ethics and integrity, additionally really useful that she not be fined.
“Caroline doesn’t pose a danger of recidivism and doesn’t pose a menace to public security,” the submitting mentioned. “Due to this fact, it might promote respect for the regulation to grant leniency in recognition of Caroline’s early disclosure of the crimes, her unconditional acceptance of duty for them and – most significantly – her in depth cooperation with the Authorities.”
Within the submitting, FTX CEO John Ray, who led the crypto agency by way of chapter proceedings, described Ellison’s cooperation as “priceless” in serving to his workforce defend and protect “tons of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars}” in belongings. He added that she labored along with his advisors to offer data relating to non-public keys for cryptocurrency wallets that contained “property belongings, DeFi positions, inside details about the FTX alternate account, using third-party exchanges for buying and selling earlier than petition and pre-petition audit practices’.
The 67-page doc chronicles massive swaths of Ellison’s life, starting along with her earliest days in Boston and lengthening to her lengthy and troubled romance with Bankman-Fried. Throughout that point, she “moved world wide at his behest, first to Hong Kong and later to the Bahamas” and “labored lengthy, hectic Adderall-fueled hours,” the submitting mentioned.
Bankman-Fried pressured Ellison right into a kind of isolation that induced her “ethical compass to grow to be distorted,” the attorneys say. At his behest, Ellison helped “steal billions” whereas dwelling “in worry, realizing {that a} catastrophic collapse was doubtless, however fearing that unraveling itself would solely hasten that collapse.”
“Bankman-Fried satisfied her to remain by telling her that she was important to the survival of the enterprise and that he cherished her,” all whereas “whereas perversely demonstrating that he thought of her not adequate to be seen in public with him at high-profile occasions,” the submitting mentioned.
An legal professional for Bankman-Fried didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The doc notes that she has “taken consolation from a brand new companion”, whose identify is omitted from the doc, however whom her pals acknowledge as a “supportive and constructive, grounding impact”. She additionally wrote a novel that was “not associated to the info of this case.”
Ellison, who turns 30 in November, has a sentencing listening to Sept. 24 in the identical courthouse the place she stood for a number of days in Bankman-Fried’s trial. Her former roommates and former FTX executives, Nishad Singh and Gary Wang, shall be sentenced in October and November, respectively.
— CNBC’s Dan Mangan contributed to this report.
