Photo: Stephanie Keith/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Last year, during the sprawling criminal trial of Sam Bankman-Fried, the most important witness against the crypto fraud was his former girlfriend and employee, Caroline Ellison. The 29-year old was the CEO of SBF’s hedge fund, Alameda Research, which was the key channel through which he defrauded millions of customers of his crypto exchange, FTX, out of about $9 billion in deposits. Ellison — who had already pleaded guilty to fraud and conspiracy charges earlier in 2023 — provided damning testimony that contradicted his insistence that he was unaware of the fraud, that it was all just one big mistake. She appeared for three days during the trial, looking deeply uncomfortable, once even failing to recognize her former boyfriend as he sat before her in the courtroom. At a key moment, she broke down in tears while recounting the unrelenting toll it took on her to keep the lie — which she had been aware of — going, and how relieved she was when it all came crashing down. Since then, she has been cooperating with the Justice Department in other cases that have come out of FTX’s collapse.
Now, it appears Ellison is finally about to be sentenced. On Monday, an attorney for Ellison, Anjan Sahni, filed a request to the court asking to redact personal and medical information from her sentencing submission, a key file of letters attesting to her character and the extent of her cooperation for the judge to consider as he decides her punishment. “Specifically, Ms. Ellison seeks leave to redact the names and personally identifying information of third parties, including certain people who have submitted letters of support on her behalf; certain irrelevant medical information; and certain information regarding Ms. Ellison’s current living situation that could put her at risk of continued harassment,” Sahni wrote, adding that the government had consented to the request.
Ellison, of course, has become a figure of intense interest — and derision — online. Since FTX imploded in November 2022, she hasn’t said a word publicly outside of her court appearances or other legal documents. (This stood in contrast to SBF, who tried to talk his way out of a conviction by going on every news show and podcast that would have him.) During one of the more bizarre twists in the run-up to the trial, Bankman-Fried even leaked selections from her diary to the New York Times, a stunt that ended up landing him in jail ahead of his trial. In that vacuum, her appearance, her inexperience, and her online diary entries about polyamory and Harry Potter have defined her to a group of a rabid, online, crypto-obsessed trolls. “As the court is aware, Ms. Ellison has been the focus of intense media scrutiny and internet fascination since the outset of this case, including from Sam Bankman-Fried’s repeated efforts to release Ms. Ellison’s private information to the media,” Sahni said.
“Ms. Ellison’s friends should not be subject to harassment and doxing because they have written to the court, Ms. Ellison seeks leave to redact their names and other identifying information,” according to the filing. It’s not clear how much of this the court will grant, particularly since support letters tend to be public. Already, Inner City Press, a one-man court-reporting operation run by Matthew Lee, has filed a challenge against the request, citing the public interest in the case.
It’s unclear what kind of prison time Ellison is likely to face, if any. Shortly before midnight on Tuesday, Ellison’s lawyers filed her sentencing memorandum, which requested that she serve no prison time. “Caroline’s participation in the criminal conspiracies at Alameda Research is a dramatic departure from her otherwise law-abiding nature. She poses no risk of recidivism. Sending Caroline to prison is entirely unnecessary, either for specific deterrence or to safeguard the public,” according to the 182-page filing, which includes exhibits that take from her diaries. Ellison said that she was not motivated by greed, but that her “moral compass warped” while working for SBF. She has also been at work on a novel, which is apparently unrelated to the facts of the case.
Should she get no prison time, it would be a stark difference from SBF, who received 25 years in prison. Another former FTX CEO, Ryan Salame, was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for his role in the crypto fraud. Not only did Ellison give star testimony in the criminal case against SBF, she has been cooperating in other investigations into the shady underbelly of cryptocurrencies. There’s no date set right now for Ellison’s sentencing, but it’s likely to be by the end of the year.
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