Caroline Ellison, a former top executive at Sam Bankman-Fried's defunct cryptocurrency empire FTX, was sentenced to 2 years in prison on Tuesday after repeatedly apologizing to everyone harmed by a fraud that defrauded investors and customers of an organization that after gave the impression of a frontrunner in an emerging financial industry out of billions of dollars.

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U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan called Ellison's cooperation within the case “very, very extensive” and praised her testimony. He said he saw no inconsistencies with the documents presented to the jury or with things she had previously told prosecutors.

However, he said a jail sentence was vital because she had been involved in what can have been “the greatest financial fraud ever committed in this country and probably anywhere else,” or not less than near it.

He said that in such a serious case he couldn’t allow cooperation to be a free pass.

“I have seen many cooperation partners here in my 30 years. But I have never met one like Ms. Ellison,” he said.

She was ordered to report back to prison on November 7.

Ellison, 29, pleaded guilty nearly two years ago and testified against Bankman-Fried for nearly three days at a trial last November.

When the decision was handed down, she sincerely apologized to everyone who was harmed by the fraud that lasted from 2017 to 2022.

“I am deeply ashamed of what I have done,” she said, struggling through tears to inform everyone she had directly or not directly harmed that she was “so, so sorry.”

In a court filing, prosecutors said her testimony was the “cornerstone of the trial” against Bankman-Fried, 32, who was found guilty of fraud and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Ellison's own lawyers asked the court for a lighter sentence, citing each her testimony at trial and the trauma of her off-on relationship with Bankman-Fried. But in addition they stressed that she had not tried to evade responsibility for her crimes.

“Caroline blames no one but herself for what she did,” her lawyers wrote in a court document. “She deeply regrets her role and will carry shame and remorse with her to her grave.”

FTX was considered one of the world's hottest cryptocurrency exchanges, known for its Superbowl TV industrial and extensive lobbying campaign in Washington, before it collapsed in 2022.

U.S. prosecutors accused Bankman-Fried and other top executives of plundering client accounts on the stock exchange to make dangerous investments, make hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal political donations, bribe Chinese officials and buy luxury properties within the Caribbean.

Ellison was a managing director at Alameda Research, a cryptocurrency hedge fund controlled by Bankman-Fried, through which a few of FTX's client funds were processed.

“From the beginning, Mr. Bankman-Fried's behavior was erratic and manipulative. Initially, he confessed to strong feelings for Caroline and hinted that their connection would develop into a real relationship. However, after a few weeks, he ignored Caroline without explanation, avoided her outside of work, and refused to respond to messages that had nothing to do with work,” her lawyers said.

When the business began to fail, Ellison informed her employees in regards to the massive fraud before FTX filed for bankruptcy, her lawyers wrote.

Finally, she also spoke extensively with US investigators.

“Ellison cooperated at great personal and professional sacrifice, endured harsh media and public criticism, and endured Bankman-Fried's attempted witness tampering,” prosecutors wrote.

They said she had been open about her own wrongdoing and was “in a unique position to explain not only the what and how of Bankman-Fried's crimes, but also the why.”

“In his numerous meetings with the government, Ellison approached his cooperation with remarkable candor, remorse, and seriousness,” they wrote. “She devoted herself to an extensive document review that helped identify key supporting documents in an investigation hampered by Bankman-Fried's systematic destruction of evidence.”

It was said that her testimony within the trial was credible and convincing.

Since testifying within the Bankman-Fried trial, Ellison has devoted herself extensively to charitable work, written a novel and worked along with her parents on a sophisticated mathematics textbook for advanced highschool students, in keeping with her lawyers.

They said she also now has a healthy romantic relationship and has reconnected with highschool friends she lost touch with while working for and sometimes dating Bankman-Fried from 2017 to late 2022.

Originally published: September 25, 2024 at 04:56

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Peace.

That's what Caroline Marks, the 22-year-old browsing sensation, feels on the waves.

No phone, no distractions. Just a deep connection between man and Mother Nature. Board and sea.

Marks describes it as “painting a picture.”

“When you're on the wave, you're very free,” Marks said. “It's a blank canvas. It's never the same wave and it's always exciting. It's a sport you can never really master.”

This love affair with browsing took Marks to the highest of the game. Multiple national championships. She was the youngest surfer to qualify for the Women's Championship Tour. She was the youngest woman to compete in a World Surf League (WSL) event. The crowning glory: winner of the WSL Women's World Tour at age 21.

Marks is a component of the U.S. Olympic browsing team for the 2024 Paris Games. Starting July 27, she will probably be browsing the historic waves of Teahupo'o in Tahiti, removed from the Eiffel Tower. In her second Olympic Games, Marks has her sights set on the rostrum after narrowly missing out on a bronze medal in Tokyo.

Caroline has been spending as much time as possible on the End of the Road because it was added to the Women's Tour and is a Teahupo'o veteran, securing her first victory in Tahiti in 2023 over US teammate Caity Simmers.

Marks continues Florida’s decades-long tradition … pic.twitter.com/6GghdKtI0F

— World Surf League (@wsl) July 16, 2024

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Growing up in Melbourne Beach, Florida, the third of six children, Marks desired to be like her brothers. Her first taste of sports was horseback riding and barrel racing. But if she desired to impress her brothers, Marks needed to try a more adventurous sport.

Then got here browsing. Her oldest brother Luke competed in junior and skilled competitions. Marks got into the water at age 7. There was a surf spot across the road from Marks' apartment in Melbourne Beach where she surfed for the primary time.

It wasn't only a sport she could beat her brothers at. Surfing became a viable profession.

The Marks family moved to San Clemente, California, a hotspot for surfers. The move to the Golden Coast was closely linked to Marks' rise. At age 11, Marks won the Surfing America Prime for under-12s, the premier amateur browsing competition. At age 15, Marks was the youngest competitor to qualify for the WSL Championship Tour. More titles followed in 2019, with Marks taking two wins and ending the yr in second place.

With the meteoric success got here enormous expectations. There was little question that Marks was a rising star in browsing. The query was, when would she win the highest events? For surfers, that's a World Championship and the Olympics.

In December 2019, Marks finished second on the WSL Championship Tour behind Carissa Moore, a five-time world champion and first Olympic gold medalist. This secured Marks a spot on the inaugural U.S. Olympic Surfing Team in Tokyo.

The first two rounds of the browsing competition are preliminary rounds. In the third round, the head-to-head knockout competition begins with the round of 16. This is followed by quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals. Marks made it to the semi-finals, where he lost to South African surfer Bianca Buitendag. In the duel for the bronze medal, Marks lost to Japanese Amuro Tsuzuki by 2.54 points.

“It obviously sucked,” said Marks. “I was really disappointed.”

Marks didn't realise the pressure as she rose up the browsing rankings. She was winning events at such a young age and the whole lot happened so quickly. She never lacked confidence, but crossing that threshold and becoming a world champion isn't easy.

In 2022, Marks missed half of the browsing season to, as she says, “deal with recurring medical and health issues.” She didn’t qualify for the WSL Finals.

Joy all the time accompanied Marks browsing, but today she admits that she put an excessive amount of pressure on herself and made her happiness depending on the outcomes.

“Surfing is your life, your purpose in life, it comes before anything else,” said Marks. “That's how it should be if you want to win and achieve something. You put so much into the preparation, don't get the result you want and then you get really depressed.”

Marks leaned on her support system. Family and friends. She lived by the motto, “If you don't win, you learn.” The disappointment of Tokyo become gratitude. She was thankful to be on the Olympic team, to surf with a job model like Moore, and to satisfy athletes like American long jumper Tara Davis-Woodhall within the Olympic Village.

It has inspired Marks to return to browsing as a more resilient athlete.

On her return to competition in June 2023, Marks won the El Salvador Surf City Pro, a WSL event, followed by a win on the Tahiti Pro, on the identical course as Paris 2024, culminating within the Rip Curl WSL Finals last September in Lower Trestles, California, her home state.

Marks entered the competition because the number three seed, defeating fourth-seeded Caitlin Simmers and second-seeded double world champion Tyler Wright en path to the ultimate, establishing a rematch against Moore.

Marks had a big group of supporters on the beach. Friends from California, family from Florida, coaches and support staff. All there to witness a possible coronation.

Marks didn’t disappoint. In the primary heat, she showed off her backhand and carving skills (the 180-degree activate the wave) with great force. The bottom turn and top turn underlined Marks' control of the wave. She scored 8.67 (out of 10) and compelled Moore to react. Marks' overall rating in the primary heat was 17.10 in comparison with 14.97 for Moore.

In the second run, Mark's maneuvers with the board earned her a rating of seven.00. She followed that up with a rating of seven.60, securing the title of world champion.

The World Champion 2023 #CarolineMarks

Repeat the #RipCurlWSLFinals now https://t.co/ie0ZfMWjFw.@ripcurl pic.twitter.com/a4apPdBSey

— World Surf League (@wsl) 13 September 2023

When her fans lifted Marks up on the beach to have a good time her, she felt like “a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.” But the actual joy was celebrating with the individuals who had helped her achieve this crowning achievement.

“All of these people have made a sacrifice for me to get me where I need to be to achieve my goal, and I think this is just the best way to repay them,” Marks said.

With the Olympics just two weeks away, Marks is putting the ending touches to her preparations. She will arrive in Tahiti 10 days before the Olympic browsing competition begins. An opportunity to get used to the waves of Tahiti, deal with rest and rest, while having fun with time together with her parents, her two younger siblings and other members of the family.

Marks won’t be together with her fellow Americans on the opening ceremony. She will probably be on an island nearly 10,000 miles away. Her goal is to bring the hardware for the closing ceremony.

Marks admits she is a unique athlete and person since three years ago, but once she is on the board, she is free.

No phone. No distractions. Just a surfer trying to overcome the waves.

The athlete