Caroline Ellison
Former CEO of Alameda Research and the prosecution's star witness against Sam Bankman-Fried. She pleaded guilty to seven counts and was sentenced in September 2024 to two years in prison.
Also known as: Caroline Ellison
Bio
Caroline Ellison ran Alameda Research, FTX's affiliated trading firm. She admitted that FTX customer funds were used to cover Alameda's liabilities and testified for the prosecution against Sam Bankman-Fried, with whom she had also been romantically involved. [1][2]
Legal outcome
Ellison pleaded guilty to seven felony counts of fraud and conspiracy and, on September 24, 2024, was sentenced to two years in prison and three years of supervised release, joined in an $11 billion forfeiture order. The judge cited her "remarkable cooperation." [1][2]
Bracketed numbers refer to the numbered sources listed below.
Sources (2)
See also
Luke BelmarIndividualsCryptocurrency influencer Luke Belmar (@lukebelmar on X) became the subject of controversy following allegations related to the promotion of a memecoin. Critics on social media alleged that Belmar used a series of posts referencing a forthcoming cryptocurrency project and a large-scale airdrop to generate interest in a token without explicitly identifying a specific contract address. Belmar published multiple posts discussing an upcoming memecoin, describing plans for what he characterized as a major airdrop and making comparisons to other cryptocurrency projects. Because no contract address was publicly provided, several tokens emerged claiming association with his statements. Critics alleged that this ambiguity enabled speculation around multiple tokens while avoiding a direct endorsement of any particular asset.
Evolved Apes (NFT)ProjectsAn NFT collection launched on OpenSea in September 2021 that promised a fighting game. About a week later its anonymous developer 'Evil Ape' vanished with 798 ETH (~$2.7M). In June 2024 U.S. prosecutors charged three U.K. nationals over the scheme.
This page was last updated on Jun 15, 2026. View revision history.