Caroline Ellison, a former top executive in Sam Bankman Freed's collapsed cryptocurrency empire, was sentenced to two years in prison on Tuesday after a judge praised the “remarkable” incriminating testimony she gave against her ex-boyfriend at her fraud trial.
The 29-year-old MIT graduate fought back tears and bowed her head slightly after Judge Lewis Kaplan revealed her fate during a hearing in Manhattan federal court.
“I would never take this as a literal get-out-of-jail-free card,” Kaplan said, addressing Ellison, who stood with his arms clasped in front of him and wearing a dark gray blazer over a maroon dress.
The judge called the FTX fraud, in which customers of the failed crypto exchange lost billions of dollars in a matter of days in 2022, one of the biggest financial crimes of all time.
Prosecutors had asked the judge to give Ellison a “lenient” sentence, as he pleaded guilty to fraud and agreed to cooperate with the federal government.
A judge on Tuesday distinguished between her and Bankman-Freed, who he found had shown no remorse for his crimes and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
“You committed serious crimes in this fraud, but there is no question that you engaged in extraordinary cooperation,” Judge Kaplan said. “That is the fundamental difference between you and Mr. Bankman Freed.”
According to trial testimony, Ellison was president of Alameda Research, a hedge fund owned by Bankman Fried, and had an on-again, off-again relationship with the former president for several years before Fried's cryptocurrency empire collapsed.
This is an ongoing story, please check back for future updates.
