Will Caroline Ellison Go to Prison? What You Need to Know Ahead of Sentencing

Earlier than that, she carved out a spot for herself within the internal circle of Alameda’s sister alternate, FTX, cementing her position as a dutiful lieutenant, lover and confidant of founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.

However on Tuesday, Ellison would be the one to take heart stage in a Manhattan federal courtroom, the place she will likely be sentenced for her position within the multibillion-dollar collapse of the FTX. Bankman-Fried was jailed for 25 years for his crimes, though he just lately appealed. Will Ellison endure an identical destiny?

This is every little thing you’ll want to know concerning the conviction of former Alameda Analysis CEO Caroline Ellison.

Who’s Caroline Ellison?

Caroline Ellison, 29, is the previous co-CEO of Alameda Analysis, a crypto-quant buying and selling agency based in 2017.

For quite a lot of years she was too embroiled in an on-again, off-again romantic relationship with Alameda founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who led the corporate’s sister crypto alternate, FTX.

At Bankman-Fried’s course, Ellison loaned billions of {dollars} of buyer funds from FTX, utilizing the embezzled crypto to cowl Alameda’s losses. Her co-conspirators additionally used the cash for political donations and dangerous gambles, equivalent to startup investments.

By the point the fraud was uncovered, the businesses had misplaced greater than $8 billion in deposits from FTX prospects.

Following the collapse of FTX in 2022, Ellison was fired from her management place at Alameda and given a brand new position: that of key witness within the legal case in opposition to her former boss and lover, Sam Bankman-Fried.

When and the place will the sentencing happen?

Caroline Ellison will obtain her sentencing on Tuesday, September 24, in the US District Court docket for the Southern District of New York in Decrease Manhattan.

Sentencing begins at 3:00 PM ET.

What was Ellison convicted of?

Ellison has pleaded responsible to 2 counts every of conspiracy to commit financial institution fraud, along with one rely of conspiracy to commit cash laundering, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, and conspiracy to commit securities fraud.

The costs collectively carry a most sentence of 110 years.

How lengthy might she be in jail?

Though Ellison might technically face greater than 100 years in jail, it’s unlikely she is going to stay in jail that lengthy. In reality, it is totally attainable that she would not spend any time within the slammer in any respect.

Ellison entered a plea settlement with federal prosecutors in 2022, limiting the extent to which she would face legal costs for her position within the FTX-Alameda fraud in alternate for serving as a authorities witness in opposition to Bankman-Fried.

The previous director’s protection has requested Ellison for “supervised launch” with out incarceration, a courtroom doc exhibits. In the meantime, federal prosecutors haven’t sought a certain amount of jail time for Ellison in a courtroom submitting reported on by the New York Instances. Within the letter to the decide who oversaw Ellison’s sentencing, authorities attorneys referred to as her work as a witness in Bankman-Fried’s legal case “not solely substantial, however exemplary.”

As well as, sharp-eyed crypto merchants keeping track of the case are betting that Ellison will obtain a comparatively mild sentence for her crimes.

About 48% of bets in an internet betting pool favor Ellison to get no time behind bars, on the time of writing, with that wager steadily growing in reputation over the course of the day on the crypto prediction market Polymarket. Solely 5% of gamblers imagine they may obtain 60 months or extra in jail.

Edited by Andrew Hayward