Caroline Ellison, former CEO of Alameda Research, and Gary Wang, co-founder of FTX, have pleaded guilty to federal charges related to their involvement in a fraud scheme orchestrated by Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of Alameda Research and founder of FTX.
Sam Bankman-Fried is now in FBI custody. Ellison and Wang have also agreed to cooperate with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in their investigations, which have brought civil charges against the pair.
If the settlements are approved, Ellison and Wang will be banned from the “issuance, purchase, offer, or sale of any securities,” except for their own personal investment accounts, and will have to give up any money made from FTX and Alameda.
The SEC alleges that Ellison and Bankman-Fried manipulated the price of FTT, a crypto security token, to prop up the value of FTX, while Wang and Ellison are accused of misusing FTX customer assets to prop up Alameda and to post collateral for margin trading.
FTX is currently in bankruptcy proceedings, with customers likely to have to wait months or years to see any return of their funds.
