Caroline Ellison, the former crypto executive and romantic partner of the disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, was sentenced to 24 months in prison in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday. Ellison was a central figure in the FTX bankruptcy saga and key witness for the prosecution in the $8bn fraud trial that ended with Bankman-Fried’s conviction.

Ellison served as the CEO of Alameda Research, which was the trading arm of the now defunct FTX crypto exchange. The collapse of FTX, once valued at $32bn, was directly linked to revelations that it was attempting to financially prop up Alameda with fraudulent accounting. Subsequent investigations and criminal charges found that both FTX and the hedge fund had used billions in customer funds for risky trades and lavish personal spending.

      • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        It’s also a message to others. If you get caught committing large scale fraud, you can avoid life-ruining consequences if you throw all of your co-conspirators under the bus.

        Giving her a 25 year sentence like they did SBF sends the opposite message.

  • delirious_owl
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    2 months ago

    How is it that we prosecute people like this, yet war criminals openly committing genocide don’t even see a day in court?

    Like I get SBF did some bad things, but it was pretty obvious to his customers that his business was shady, and he didn’t literally kill tens of thousands of innocent civilians

    • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      Because the war criminals committing genocide are foreign leaders who exist outside of U.S. legal jurisdiction, that can only prosecuted by waging war against their respective countries and capturing them. In the case of Israel, which I assume you’re referencing here, this is a non-starter.

      SBF and Ellison are U.S. citizens living within U.S. borders who can be arrested and brought into state custody quite easily when they break U.S. laws.

      It seems unfair at face value, but the alternative is just “America: World Police”, and that’s why we can only arrest people and charge them with crimes inside our sovereign borders and on the battlefield.