Accordingly, Damian Williams announced that Caroline Ellison, former CEO of hedge fund Alameda Research, and Gary Wang, former CTO and co-founder of FTX plead guilty. Both have played an important role in the rise and fall of the FTX – Alameda empire.
Ellison is pleading guilty to seven counts, including wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She is charged with the same crimes as Bankman-Fried, except for the campaign finance charges.
7 crimes above will carry a maximum penalty of up to 110 years in prison.
Gary Wang, meanwhile, is pleading guilty to four counts: wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, and conspiracy to commit securities fraud.
The maximum total penalty for the FTX co-founder if found guilty is 50 years in prison.
About Sam Bankman-Fried, former CEO of FTX, charged with eight counts earlier this month after he was arrested in Nassau. The charges include securities, wire fraud, conspiracy, money laundering, and violating campaign finance regulations,… He is being extradited to US, Williams confirmed in his statement, saying the FTX founder is in FBI custody and will appear in court as soon as possible.
The maximum total penalty for Sam if found guilty is 115 years in prison.
At the same time, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced charges against Caroline Ellison, alleging that Ellison manipulated the price of the FTT, native token issued by FTX, at the direction of exchange founder Sam Bankman-Fried.
Meanwhile, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) also accused Wang of building a “back door” on FTX to help Alameda secretly withdraw users’ funds, as well as giving Alameda trading privileges on FTX such as faster order execution time, allowing to have a negative account and not be liquidated.