When crypto fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried went on trial in 2023, the prosecution’s star witness was on-again, off-again girlfriend Caroline Ellison, who was CEO of his buying and selling agency and whose testimony helped put him in jail for 25 years. Now, Ellison will face the courtroom once more—this time to plead for leniency as a decide prepares to condemn her for her personal position within the collapse of FTX.
On Tuesday evening, Ellison’s attorneys filed a 67-page memorandum detailing her cooperation with prosecutors and FTX’s chapter property, and asking that she keep away from any jail time for her involvement in FTX’s collapse. Additionally they filed almost 40 letters in assist from her family and friends, together with representatives of the FTX chapter property, together with CEO John Ray.
The memo delves into Ellison’s private life and historical past with Bankman-Fried, blaming a lot of her choices on his manipulative method to their relationship. In a single occasion, her attorneys allege, Bankman-Fried persuaded her to get a prescription for the amphetamine Adderall, which Ellison grew to become depending on.
“Reflecting now, Caroline believes that this amphetamine use made her more risk-seeking, more focused on the task at hand but less thoughtful and reflective,” the attorneys write. “It narrowed her focus to completing whatever task Mr. Bankman-Fried had assigned her and left her less inclined to step back and think about whether the situation made sense.”
From crush to break down
As soon as valued at over $30 billion, the fast failure of FTX in November 2022 captured public consideration because of its larger-than-life characters and eye-popping greenback figures. A lot of the fascination centered on the relationships between the shut cadre of associates of their late twenties and early thirties who ran the crypto empire, together with Bankman-Fried and Ellison, a lot of whom dated one another. By the point of the trial, all had turned on Bankman-Fried, whose response included leaking Ellison’s personal diary to the New York Occasions.
Because the CEO of Alameda Analysis, Ellison performed a essential position in FTX and admitted to prosecutors that she was conscious—and facilitated—Bankman-Fried’s ploy to funnel billions of {dollars} of buyer funds to his personal investments, together with in startups, political donations, and luxurious actual property. Nonetheless, in her sentencing memo, her legal professionals argue that a lot of her unhealthy judgment stemmed from her long-term relationship with Bankman-Fried, which started whereas they had been each working on the buying and selling agency Jane Road.
They intermittently dated, together with whereas working collectively at FTX—a incontrovertible fact that Bankman-Fried tried to hide from his staff. In a single occasion, in accordance with Ellison’s attorneys, he proposed having intercourse along with her whereas courting another person, which Ellison refused. Later, her attorneys word, Bankman-Fried denied her the identical movie star way of life that he loved, telling her that he didn’t need to be seen publicly along with her, together with at high-profile occasions just like the Met Gala and Tremendous Bowl.
A spokesperson for Bankman-Fried declined to remark.
Whereas the memo is full of sordid particulars about their relationship, the attorneys additionally criticized the media’s fascination along with her private life, which they argue led to invasions of her privateness and led to folks “hounding” Ellison’s mother and father and sisters, together with revealing their residences on the web. Among the letters within the memo had been filed beneath seal to guard the identities of individuals writing in her assist.
Within the memo, Ellison’s attorneys word that the Probation Division recommends a sentence of time served with three years of supervised launch, and request a noncustodial sentence, that means one that doesn’t contain jail time. Her listening to is scheduled for Sept. 24, with prosecutors anticipated to file their response this week.
