FTX collapse: Caroline Ellison handed 2-year prison sentence for 'greatest financial fraud ever'
euronews.comA former top executive in Sam Bankman-Fried's fallen FTX cryptocurrency empire was sentenced to two years in prison on Tuesday for the part she played in a fraud that stole billions of US dollars from investors, lenders, and customers.
Caroline Ellison, 29, could have faced a much tougher sentence, but both the judge and prosecutors said she deserved credit for talking extensively with federal investigators, pleading guilty, and ultimately testifying against Bankman-Fried for three days at his trial last November.
US District Judge Lewis A Kaplan said Ellison's cooperation was "very, very substantial" and "remarkable".
But he said a prison sentence was necessary because she had participated in what might be the "greatest financial fraud ever perpetrated in this country and probably anywhere else" or at least close to it.
Ellison was ordered to report to prison November 7.
FTX was one of the world’s most popular cryptocurrency exchanges, known for its Superbowl TV ad and extensive lobbying campaign in Washington DC, before it collapsed in 2022.
US prosecutors accused Bankman-Fried and other top executives of looting customer accounts on the exchange to make risky investments, make millions of dollars of illegal political donations, bribe Chinese officials, and buy luxury real estate in the Caribbean.
Ellison was chief executive at Alameda Research, a cryptocurrency hedge fund controlled by Bankman-Fried.
"I'm deeply ashamed with what I’ve done," she said at the sentencing hearing, fighting through tears to say she was "so so sorry" to everyone she had harmed directly or indirectly.
She did not speak as she left Manhattan federal court in New York, surrounded by lawyers.
In court on Tuesday, Assistant US Attorney Danielle Sassoon
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