Caroline Ellison, former CEO of Alameda Research, has been sentenced to 2 years in prison for her role in the collapse of the crypto-exchange FTX. The sentence also requires Ellison to forfeit approximately 11 billion dollars earned through the platform. 

FTX collapse and the verdict: Caroline Ellison sentenced to two years in prison 

A lenient sentence that was issued by Judge Lewis Kaplan at the Southern District Court of New York, which sentences Caroline Ellison to two years in minimum-security prison.

The ex-CEO of Alameda Research was therefore convicted for her role in the collapse of the crypto-exchange FTX, and will have to forfeit the approximately 11 billion dollars earned with the platform.  

In reality, Ellison was risking up to 110 years in prison for his crimes, but the Court considered several factors that significantly reduced the sentence. From what has emerged, Ellison’s surrender date will be set for November 7, 2024, or later. 

In this regard, Judge Kaplan said:

“You are a very strong person, Ms. Ellison, in some ways, but not invincible. Mr. Bankman-Fried had his Kryptonite. […] You were vulnerable and were exploited.”

The reason for the clemency towards Ellison is undoubtedly her cooperation with the prosecution in the case against Sam Bankman-Fried, her former colleague and alleged boyfriend. 

FTX collapse: Caroline Ellison and the two years in prison thanks to her cooperation against Sam Bankman-Fried

Last October 2023, Caroline Ellison took the stand sul banco dei testimoni del caso contro Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) and the failed crypto-exchange FTX.

After admitting her guilt, Ellison decided to cooperate with the prosecutors for almost a year, hoping to obtain a lighter sentence than the 110 years in prison she was facing. 

And so, Ellison illustrated to the jurors the financial documents she prepared, stating that they were “dishonest” and designed to mask Alameda’s financial instability. Not only that, Ellison also gave more weight to another testimony from FTX executive, Gary Wang, who stated that Alameda had a secret and virtually unlimited line of credit to draw on FTX customer funds. 

In any case, Ellison emphasized that she acted illegally and criminally only as an execution of orders dictated by SBF. For Ellison, all the decisions made were all by Bankman-Fried. 

The unlocking of millions of Solana (SOL)

Two weeks ago, a wallet connected to FTX unlocked 177,693 SOL, Solana tokens, raising concerns about a possible sell-off of this significant amount. 

In fact, it is an unlocking of the equivalent of about 23.75 million dollars which, however, did not cause any instability in the price of SOL. 

This means that this move of unstaking should not necessarily imply an immediate sale of the crypto. 

Given that the price of SOL had remained unchanged, in fact, another hypothesis could be that the holder of the SOL might have decided to reuse or redistribute them, but not necessarily sell them. 

In any case, today SOL is following the bullish trend of the crypto market. At the time of writing, the price of SOL is $151.03, in a pump of +15% compared to seven days ago.