Former Girlfriend of FTX’s Bankman-Fried Seeks To Avoid Prison

One of the executives caught up in the high profile trial of former crypto billionaire and FTX founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, has pleaded not to be sent to prison.

Reuters reported that Sam Bankman-Fried’s former girlfriend, Caroline Ellison, who was also a FTX executive, has urged a federal judge not to send her to prison after she pleaded guilty over her role in the theft of $8 billion from customers.

FTX had collapsed into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection back in November 2022, when a multi-billion dollar hole was found in its balance sheet, in what US prosecutors described as one of the biggest financial frauds in American history.

FTX trial

After a notable trial in the United States, Sam Bankman-Fried was eventually sentenced to sentenced to 25 years in prison.

He is currently appealing the verdict and sentence.

Caroline Ellison (previously Alameda’s chief executive and former girlfriend of Bankman-Fried) had pleaded guilty in December 2022 to multiple criminal charges, and agreed to co-operate with the US investigation.

Two other executives and former close associates also testified as prosecution witnesses at the trial that Bankman-Fried had directed them to use FTX customer funds to plug losses at Alameda Research.

This included Gary Wang the former chief technology officer at FTX, and Nishad Singh, the former engineering director at FTX.

Final plea

Now Reuters reported that lawyers for Caroline Ellison in a court filing just before midnight on Tuesday, told US District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan that Ellison deserves leniency for helping prosecutors build a successful criminal case against Bankman-Fried.

“From her first meeting with prosecutors, Caroline unflinchingly acknowledged her own wrongdoing,” her lawyer Anjan Sahni reportedly wrote. “She time and again proved herself an enormously credible and important cooperating witness.”

Ellison, aged 29, is scheduled to be sentenced on 24 September.

Nishad Singh and Gary Wang face sentencing hearings on 30 October and 20 November, respectively.

Meanwhile Ryan Salame, a former FTX executive who did not co-operate with prosecutors, was sentenced to 7-1/2 years in prison in May after pleading guilty to making unlawful campaign donations to causes supported by Bankman-Fried.