Caroline Ellison sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to return R$60 billion in FTX case

Caroline Ellison was sentenced to 24 months in prison and ordered by a federal judge to repay $11 billion for her role in the collapse of FTX, despite helping prosecutors convict Sam Bankman-Fried, her former boss and friend.

Judge Lewis Kaplan on Tuesday sentenced the 29-year-old to two years in prison and three years of probation, calling Ellison’s cooperation “remarkable” and praising her testimony during the fraud trial. However, for such a serious case, the judge said a “get out of jail free card” was not appropriate.

“I’ve seen a lot of accomplices in my 30 years, but I’ve never seen one like Ms. Ellison,” Kaplan said before handing down the sentence. He described the collapse of FTX as one of the largest financial frauds ever perpetrated in the United States, and that cryptocurrency fraud is “easy and attractive to many criminals.”

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Her conviction closes another chapter in the fallout from the FTX collapse, which saw a group of young crypto executives and friends turn against Bankman-Fried and work with prosecutors in hopes of avoiding prison. FTX filed for bankruptcy in late 2022, exposing a years-long fraud that prosecutors say siphoned off about $10 billion from customers, investors and creditors.