FTX collapse: Former CEO of Alameda pleads guilty

Facing up to 110 years in prison
Caroline Ellison was FTX cofounder Sam Bankman-Fried's on-off girlfriend.
    - 2022-12-23 00:00:00
Cheryl Teh - Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research, faces a maximum sentence of 110 years in prison after striking a plea deal with the US department of justice.
That's according to Ellison's plea agreement with prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, dated 18 December.
According to the plea agreement, Ellison faces seven charges that collectively carry a maximum prison sentence of 110 years. These include conspiracy to commit wire fraud, securities fraud, and commodities fraud. She also faces a charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Ellison has agreed to waive any defenses to the charges. Per her deal with prosecutors, she also agrees to make restitution, the amount of which the courts will determine.
As part of her plea deal, Ellison must cooperate fully with prosecutors, the FBI, and any other law enforcement agencies. She must also provide documents, records, and evidence to prosecutors, and testify to a grand jury or at court trials when requested.
A lawyer for Ellison did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
TIES
Ellison was FTX cofounder Sam Bankman-Fried's on-off girlfriend. She was the chief of Alameda Research, the trading firm Bankman-Fried launched. Also working with Bankman-Fried and Ellison at Alameda Research was FTX cofounder Gary Wang.
Wang, like Ellison, has pleaded guilty to fraud, per a Wednesday announcement from the US attorney for the Southern District of New York.
In November, Reuters reported that Bankman-Fried secretly moved US$10 billion in customer funds from FTX to Alameda Research. A large chunk of that money has gone missing, Reuters' sources said, pegging the amount between US$1 and US$2 billion.
Bankman-Fried told Reuters that he "disagreed with the characterisation" of the US$10 billion transfer.
"We didn't secretly transfer," he told Reuters in text messages at the time. "We had confusing internal labelling and misread it."
On Wednesday night, Bankman-Fried was extradited from the Bahamas and landed back in the US.
FTX filed for bankruptcy on 11 November after it imploded, decimating billions in customer funds overnight. Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO the same day. – Fin24/Business Insider