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OAN Staff James Meyers
3:05 PM – Tuesday, September 24, 2024
Caroline Ellison, a former top executive in Sam Bankman-Fried’s collapsed crypto empire FTX, was sentenced to two years in prison on Tuesday.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) graduate was emotional after Manhattan federal court judge Lewis Kaplan revealed her fate at a hearing in Manhattan federal court.
“To make it literally a get out of jail free card is not something that I can see my way clear to,” Kaplan said as Ellison stood, her hands clasped together in front of her.
The judge on the trial reiterated that the FTX fraud was one of the largest financial crimes in history, which saw customers of the failed cryptocurrency exchange lose billions of dollars in 2022, within days.
Prosecutors throughout the trial had pleaded with the judge to impose a “lenient” sentence on Ellison, who pleaded guilty to fraud charges and agreed to cooperate with the feds.
The judge drew a difference on Tuesday between her and Bankman-Fried, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison in March, for his role with the company and found that he did not show any remorse for his crimes.
“While you were gravely culpable in this fraud, there is no doubt that you had remarkable cooperation,” Judge Kaplan said. “That’s a fundamental distinction between you and Mr Bankman-Fried.”
Trial testimony revealed that Ellison had served as the head of Alameda Research, the hedge fund that Bankman-Fried owned, and had been his on-and-off girlfriend in the years before his crypto empire plummeted.
Meanwhile, Bankman-Fried has maintained his innocence and is appealing his case.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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