Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang Plead Guilty to Fraud | Released on $250K Bond
Per WSJ
In relation to Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of now-bankrupt FTX, two former colleagues pleaded guilty to fraud. Alameda CEO and ex-girlfriend of SBF, Caroline Ellison, and former CTO and co-founder of FTX, Gary Wang, are now cooperating with prosecutors after pleading guilty and were released on a $250,000 bond.
After appearing on interview after interview denying he knew what happened behind the scenes and claiming it was poor judgment, SBF is now in jail, transferring from the Bahamas prison to New York to face his trials.
With Ellison and Wang pleading guilty, the prosecutors are building an arsenal of evidence for his trial. Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams shared how the two were willing to cooperate in helping them build a case against the FTX founder.
Williams: “We continue to work around-the-clock and we are far from done,”
The Manhattan US Attorney also called for others to come forward.
Ellison was running Alameda Research, a crypto trading firm established by SBF, and faces up to 110 years in prison as she pleaded guilty to seven counts, including the following:
- Conspiracies to commit wire fraud
- securities fraud
- commodities fraud
- money laundering
Wang, the co-founder of FTX, faces up to 50 years in prison as he pleads guilty to four counts of conspiracy and fraud-related crimes. His attorney, Ilan Graff, said that the former FTX CTO is willing to cooperate, saying:
"(Wang) has accepted responsibility for his actions and takes seriously his obligations as a cooperating witness."
Both former colleagues of SBF were released on a $250,000 bond, and should they become helpful in the case while not violating any agreements, they could get a lighter sentence or a promise of no sentence at all.
The SEC is also charging both SBF colleagues with fraud, saying they helped the FTX founder divert customer funds to Alameda while misleading investors. Ellison was also alleged to have manipulated FTT prices, the digital token FTX issued, to mislead public perception regarding the businesses' performance.
Resources:
See flow at unusualwhales.com/flow.