Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research, pleaded guilty to charges that carry up to 110 years in prison after striking a plea deal with the Justice Department.
It's not likely that she will serve anywhere near the statutory maximum for the charges she pleaded guilty to because of the plea agreement she struck with prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, dated December 18.
Ellison faces seven charges that collectively carry a maximum prison sentence of 110 years. These include conspiracy to commit wire fraud, securities fraud, and commodities fraud. She also faces a charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Ellison has agreed to waive any defenses to the charges. Per her deal with prosecutors, she also agreed to pay restitution, the amount of which the courts will determine.
As part of the deal, Ellison must cooperate fully with prosecutors, the FBI, and any other law-enforcement agencies. She must also provide documents, records, and evidence to prosecutors, as well as testify to a grand jury or at court trials when requested.
A lawyer for Ellison did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ellison was the FTX cofounder Sam Bankman-Fried's on-again, off-again girlfriend. She was the chief of Alameda Research, the trading firm Bankman-Fried launched. Also working with Bankman-Fried and Ellison at Alameda Research was Gary Wang, another FTX cofounder.
Wang, like Ellison, has pleaded guilty to fraud, according to a Wednesday announcement from the US attorney for the Southern District of New York.
In November, Reuters reported that Bankman-Fried secretly moved $10 billion in customer funds from FTX to Alameda Research. A large chunk of that money has gone missing, Reuters' sources said, pegging the amount between $1 billion and $2 billion.
Bankman-Fried told Reuters he "disagreed with the characterization" of the $10 billion transfer.
"We didn't secretly transfer," he told Reuters in text messages at the time. "We had confusing internal labeling and misread it."
On Wednesday night, Bankman-Fried was extradited from the Bahamas and landed back in the US.
FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on November 11 after it imploded, decimating billions in customer funds overnight. Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO the same day.
