Bankman-Fried’s Ex-Girlfriend Gets Two-Year Sentence Over Crypto Fraud

Caroline Ellison, a former cryptocurrency executive, was sentenced to two years in prison on Tuesday for her involvement in her ex-boyfriend Sam Bankman-Fried's theft of $8 billion in customer funds from the now-bankrupt FTX exchange he founded, Luc Cohen reported for Reuters.

The charges Ellison faced carried a maximum sentence of 110 years but her cooperation prompted prosecutors and her lawyers to seek leniency. I Photo: FTX X

Despite her extensive cooperation with prosecutors, the judge expressed reservations about leniency in such a significant case.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, presiding at the sentencing hearing in Manhattan federal court, emphasized that remorse and cooperation should not be a "get out of jail free card" in a case as serious as this.

Prosecutors have labeled Bankman-Fried’s actions one of the largest financial frauds in U.S. history.

Ellison, 29, pleaded guilty to seven felony counts of fraud and conspiracy and testified as a witness against Bankman-Fried. He was convicted of fraud and other charges last year and is serving a 25-year prison sentence stemming from FTX's collapse in 2022.

Although the charges Ellison faced carried a maximum sentence of 110 years, her cooperation prompted prosecutors and her lawyers to seek leniency. Kaplan acknowledged her "remarkable cooperation" but reminded her of her "grave culpability" in the fraud.

“There's no way you're ever going to do something like this again, I am persuaded,” Kaplan said. “But here's the thing: this was, if not the greatest financial fraud ever perpetrated in this country, close to it.”