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.
Linked scams & cases
Sources (2)
See also
- Blockchain Terminal (BCT)TokensA 2017–2018 ICO (BCT tokens, ~$30M) for a 'Blockchain Terminal' — a Bloomberg-style crypto trading terminal. The SEC and DOJ said convicted ex-hedge-funder Boaz Manor secretly ran it under a fake identity ('Shaun MacDonald'), using associate Edith Pardo as a front, and lied about the product's adoption.
- Dropil (DROP)TokensAn ICO for the DROP token built around a fake 'Dex' trading bot. The SEC said it raised ~$1.9M while claiming $54M from 34,000 investors, and that the founders falsified evidence during the probe. Founders Jeremy McAlpine and Zachary Matar pleaded guilty to securities fraud (36 and 30 months).
- CluCoin (CLU)Tokens
This page was last updated on Jun 8, 2026. View revision history.