By South China Morning Post | Created at 2024-09-25 01:03:27 | Updated at 2024-09-30 13:20:43
5 days ago
Caroline Ellison, a former top executive in Sam Bankman-Fried’s fallen FTX cryptocurrency empire, was sentenced to two years in prison on Tuesday after she apologised to everyone hurt by a fraud that stole billions of dollars from investors, lenders and customers.
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.
