Caroline Ellison, the ex-girlfriend of FTX ringleader Sam Bankman-Fried, was sentenced to two years for her role in the $8 billion crypto fraud and was seen frequently tearing up during the hearing Tuesday.
Ellison, 29, was handpicked by Bankman-Fried to be CEO of Alameda Research, a crypto trading company that had strong ties to FTX, the crypto exchange used by every day customers before it collapsed in November 2022.
The sentence, though lenient as she was facing a maximum of 110 years, still came as a shock for experts in the legal field, most of whom believed she would get no jail time for her extreme cooperation with prosecutors.
She was the star witness at Bankman-Fried's trial and her three days of testimony, which revealed how Alameda stole billions of dollars from FTX customers to finance risky trades and lavish spending, was 'crucial' in securing a conviction and a 25-year prison sentence for the fraudster, prosecutors wrote in a court filing last Tuesday.
After pleading guilty to seven charges in late 2022, including wire fraud and money laundering, her lawyers had asked that she be sentenced to three years of supervised release but no prison time.