Caroline Ellison Gets 2 Years in Prison for FTX, Alameda Crimes

Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison has been sentenced to two years in prison for defrauding investors of crypto exchange FTX and its sister firm.

Judge Lewis Kaplan of the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York handed down the sentence, citing Ellison’s strong cooperation as a witness against former FTX fraud ringleader Sam Bankman-Fried last fall.

“I’ve seen a lot of cooperators in 30 years,” said Kaplan, per Bloomberg. I’ve never seen one quite like Ms. Ellison.”

Ellison must also forfeit $11 billion, Kaplan said—the same amount demanded of Bankman-Fried.

Ellison reflected on the weight of her crimes in a statement to the court just before her sentencing.

“The human brain is truly bad at understanding big numbers,” Ellison said. “Not a day goes by that I don’t think about all of the people I hurt.”

Bankman-Fried received a 25-year sentence last fall, although he has appealed the decision. 

Ellison, 29, pled guilty in 2022 to two counts each of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, as well as conspiracies to commit money laundering, commodities fraud and securities fraud. But, the former executive struck a deal with federal prosecutors in 2022 to serve as a government witness against Bankman-Fried in the hopes of securing a lighter sentence.

Ellison’s crimes carried a maximum prison sentence of 110 years.  

The erstwhile CEO’s lawyers had recommended Ellison receive three years of “supervised release” with no prison time, a court document shows. Meanwhile, the prosecution did not make any prison term-related recommendations on Ellison’s sentencing.

Edited by Andrew Hayward 

Editor’s note: This story was updated after publication to include additional details.