Caroline Ellison Sentenced To Two Years In Jail For Role In FTX Fraud, Must Forfeit $11 Billion (theverge.com) 71
Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research, must serve 24 months in prison and forfeit $11 billion. "I've seen a lot of cooperators in 30 years. I've never seen one quite like Ms. Ellison," said Judge Lewis Kaplan during the sentencing hearing today. The Verge reports: Ellison pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud and five conspiracy counts in December 2022 as part of a cooperation agreement with the government. Prosecutors had recommended a lenient sentence because of Ellison's "extraordinary" and "very timely" cooperation. Her own lawyers asked for no jail time, as did the federal Probation Department.
Ellison was the key witness at the trial of FTX cofounder Sam Bankman-Fried, where she testified for three days. A statement submitted by the prosecution before Ellison's sentencing said the speed at which she came clean made it possible to indict her ex-boyfriend Bankman-Fried quickly, "ensuring that he did not flee the Bahamas or further obstruct the government's investigation." The document also noted that Ellison was completely and immediately forthcoming in her meetings with the government.
Ellison was also prompt in assisting John J. Ray, the new CEO charged with cleaning up the FTX mess, in locating and recovering customer assets, according to a statement written by Ray submitted by the defense. Her "early cooperation" was "valuable" in recovering debtors' assets, he wrote. Ellison is working on a deal where she will turn over "substantially all of her remaining assets after satisfying her forfeiture obligations" to the FTX debtors.
Ellison was the key witness at the trial of FTX cofounder Sam Bankman-Fried, where she testified for three days. A statement submitted by the prosecution before Ellison's sentencing said the speed at which she came clean made it possible to indict her ex-boyfriend Bankman-Fried quickly, "ensuring that he did not flee the Bahamas or further obstruct the government's investigation." The document also noted that Ellison was completely and immediately forthcoming in her meetings with the government.
Ellison was also prompt in assisting John J. Ray, the new CEO charged with cleaning up the FTX mess, in locating and recovering customer assets, according to a statement written by Ray submitted by the defense. Her "early cooperation" was "valuable" in recovering debtors' assets, he wrote. Ellison is working on a deal where she will turn over "substantially all of her remaining assets after satisfying her forfeiture obligations" to the FTX debtors.
"forfeit $11 bn"? (Score:2, Insightful)
...sounds like she gets to keep a decent amount.
On these giant grift games, the fines need to be "all but $x" where it's everything they own or will own, aside from enough to keep them of the poverty rolls.
Re: "forfeit $11 bn"? (Score:4)
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Even if the 11B figure represents every dollar she originally scammed, she might have made a staggering amount in investments in the mean time.
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she might have made a staggering amount in investments in the mean time.
Which courts don't care about for some reason. They never or hardly ever take lost or gained business opportunities into account.
If someone steals $1 billion from you and you sue them, Then most likely the most you can ever be awarded is the $1 Billion.
The courts will Not award you for your "lost gains" or "lost returns" that could have been expected from investing the $1 billion over all that time you had been deprived of it. I
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If they can award you lost gains or lost returns, then couldn't that very same government branch say your unrealized gains can be taxed? Slippery slope. Second, how do you know the original owner would have made interest on that money? Wallstreetbets has shown that a majority of people cannot make money when they invest. Can't give awards to hypothetical situations.
"I would have made 100% gains on my $1 billion, therefore you own me $2 billion!" -Someone from clown world
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All of this is moot because most courts will accept judgement requets with interest from they day the money is owed but no higher than the prime interest rate. So if the interest rate is at 0%, don't expect the courts to give you any extra in recourse
Re: "forfeit $11 bn"? (Score:1)
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> Ellison is working on a deal where she will turn over "substantially all of her remaining assets after satisfying her forfeiture obligations" to the FTX debtors
Did you read past the headline?
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Most egregiously, you omitted the most successful dictator. Your troll lacked impact because you didn't include "Putin" in your pro-far-right rant: Buzz-words really do make a difference.
I give you a D+ grade, "Must work harder".
Re: Amazing how fast people get jailed for politic (Score:2)
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DumboCrap? Seriously? That sounds like an insult a third grader would come up with.
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Apparently you haven't been observing the American flavor of jurisprudence, the rich and powerful do not have to atone for their crimes and in fact generally are applauded for them. Just look at how many years Dolt 45 was committing the most blatant frauds, bribery and money laundering for 40+ years, it wasn't until it was politically advantageous that he was actually charged with anything.
Sickeningly pop culture. (Score:1)
We watched this all happen and so few questioned the shenanigans, just shrugged and waited for their check.
Re:Sickeningly pop culture. (Score:4, Interesting)
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Somehow that was overruled by a law, not an amendment
Crypto many or may not even be considered "currency", depending on how you want to define
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First issue:The Constitution does not say that money has to be backed by gold or silver. It only says that "No State shall... make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts".
Second issue: The Constitution does explicitly state that the power to coin money belongs to the Congress. The Federal Reserve was established by Congress through the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. The constitutional issue is that private banks are allowed to elect some board members to the regional Federal Rese
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Not at all, the Federal government just happens to be the only one doing it at this time. Formerly banks frequently issued their own currency, and private currency was one of the main things that kept workers tied to the "company store". The practice pretty much ended during the Depression, since no one would trust a bank to be able to honor its own currency any longer, but still communities and even malls frequently issue their own currencies to encourage patronage of local businesses.
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Fine, I don't date based what I believe other's would think of their looks. Less competition anyhow. I don't want an eye-trophy, but a wanker-buzzer.
> She looks like Eeyore on chemotherapy.
Don't trash donkeys until you try one ;-)
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"I get a lot of pleasure from doing things that are hard, unpleasant, physically taxing, or emotionally painful...I like when a man is physically strong enough to overpower me.”
So I don't know maybe write her letters in prison if you're into that. Write the letters in code so they are unpleasant to read.
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> Write the letters in code so they are unpleasant to read.
Unpleasant? JavaScript! Or do you mean like "bird" meaning "cell door keys"?
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SBF is no criminal mastermind (Score:4, Insightful)
don't break up with the girlfriend who you felony crimed with
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But the chance of one causing the other is pretty high.
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If you're SBF, why would you date an ugly girl like this?
Maybe he figured she wasn't a gold digger. Considering that she's giving away all the money to Uncle Sam, he was probably right.
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The idea is that frauds like this result in joint and severable liability.
This is not exactly Joint and severable liability for the fraud if EACH have been ordered individually to Forfeit $11 Billion.
Meaning even after she forfeits $11 Billion: her ex b/f is still required to forfeit $11 Billion. This means that the total everyone is required to forfeit will be at least twice as much as the fraud.
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If you're SBF, why would you date an ugly girl like this?
They look like each other.
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I'd rather fuck SBF than her. He's more attractive and I'm not attracted to men.
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You're right, he was no mastermind. He was just another dumb thief, who happened to find a very *large* treasure trove to steal, and took advantage of the situation. That doesn't make him smart, it just made him (temporarily) very lucky.
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It's "divining rod": You included the original mis-type from Reddit: Reddit copy-pasta shows the original quote, so this is double-shitty copy-pasta.
I will include the reply from "gattsuru":
Full quote (Score:5, Informative)
The judge says that he can’t remember a time when Ellison was even slightly inconsistent during her testimony. “I’ve seen a lot of cooperators in 30 years. I’ve never seen one quite like Ms. Ellison,” the judge said.
She was caught in no inconsistencies in her testimony, which was “very incriminating of herself and she pulled no punches about it.”
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She was caught in no inconsistencies in her testimony, which was “very incriminating of herself and she pulled no punches about it.”
She knew the scam pissed off the rich and powerful, and she valued her life more than her money. She doesn't want to end up dead in some "accident" or in prison.
Re: Full quote (Score:2)
Fun fact (Score:3)
Sam Bankster Fraud and P Diddy are sharing the same cell [nytimes.com] at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
Re: Fun fact (Score:2)
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Lucky bastard, the one time I was in jail (in Peru) there were 14 of us in the cell, waiting for the judge to show up for work Monday morning. Most miserable weekend of my entire life, they don't even feed you in Peruvian jails, you need to arrange to have food brought in, and the toilet facilities are not in the cell, you better be able to wait up to six hours or it's going to get messy. My recommendation is to avoid Peruvian jails at all costs.
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the judge also said:
"The judge said the FTX case is probably the greatest financial fraud perpetrated in the history of the U.S., and because of that a “literal get-out-of-jail-free card I can’t agree to,” Kaplan said in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, where Ellison’s parents and two sisters looked on from the courtroom’s gallery"
Even with full compliance her getting two years is a laughable joke.
Re: Full quote (Score:2)
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Even with full compliance her getting two years is a laughable joke.
The prosecutors disagree with you. They asked for leniency. Given the nature of their job and the sort of people normally found in that role, that says a lot about Ellison's behavior.
Where did that $11 billion come from? (Score:2)
Forfeit would seem to indicate she has that sort of money about.
Refreshing for a criminal (Score:5, Interesting)
Ellison committed crimes. Yes. But she is quite different from your ordinary criminal. She felt quite guilty about the whole thing as it was going on. And she owned up to all of it when asked. No excuses. No blaming others for her misdeeds. And returned all of the money. She stuck me as an odd one from her early interviews when FTX blew up.
Only if more of our criminals were like her.
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I volunteer in an inner city neighborhood in Houston. In that role, I encounter many people who have been in jail, mostly for just reasons. Most of them have NO intention of going back to their life of crime, and are actively trying to help others avoid their own fate.
This type of criminal, the kind that truly change their ways, is more common than you might think.
Everyone was paid back (Score:2, Informative)
What I didn't realise is that after liquidation, sale of assets etc all of the shortfall was 100% covered with very large sums of money left over. There was indeed a "dragons hoard" of money. Liquidation realised $16 billion in assets with $12billion in cash. No-one lost money although some people were very upset that they were not paid more due to increases in crypto value.
I do not deny or disagree with the outcome of her trail and her sentence but Sam's 25 year sentence when you look at it from the financ
Re: Everyone was paid back (Score:1, Troll)
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The depositors are getting "paid back" based on the historic dollar value of their accounts because:
a) the underlying deposits appreciated on the meantime; and
b) the company has such poor accounting practices they had no idea how much they had.
Part a) still seems incorrect to me since they were custodial accounts. If you deposited 1000 shares of XYZ stock in a custodial account you are not whole until you get 1000 shares back.
Part b) is just additional evidence that the enterprise was all a gigantic fraud.
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Customers may have not lost in *dollar terms*, but if their holdings were in BTC, they still lost.
If I were to buy euros and hold them in an account, and the holding company goes bust, I'd expect my euros back, not the dollar equivalent value at the time I bought the euros. The euros were my money... that's why I held them.
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The only reason that investors were able to be made whole is because of the increase in crypto value, a frack of a lot of money disappeared and they would have been out a shitload if it had been a normal enterprise.