Prosecutors seek lenient sentence for star witness in FTX crypto trial

Judge told that Caroline Ellison, who pleaded guilty to fraud, cooperated fully

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Caroline Ellison, a close colleague of disgraced cryptocurrency mogul Sam BankmanFried, provided “extraordinary cooperation" to the US government, federal prosecutors said on Sept 17, signalling that she should receive a lenient sentence for her role in the extensive fraud that led to the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange.

Ellison, 29, who was also Bankman-Fried's on-and-off girlfriend, pleaded guilty to fraud shortly after FTX collapsed in November 2022, alongside two other members of his inner circle.

In a court filing in September, Ellison's defence lawyers asked the judge overseeing the case, Mr Lewis Kaplan, to sentence her to three years of supervised release, with no prison time.

In the US government's filing on Sept 17, prosecutors did not recommend a specific sentence to the judge but pointed out that her cooperation was "not only substantial, but exemplary".

Ellison was the star witness at Bankman-Fried's 2023 trial in federal court, where she spent nearly three days on the stand.

She described an incriminating spreadsheet that Bankman-Fried had used to mislead business partners and recounted the final days of FTX, holding back tears as she delivered some of the trial's most emotional testimony.

Bankman-Fried was convicted of committing a sophisticated fraud that syphoned US$8 billion (S$10.37 billion) from customer accounts to finance venture investments, political donations and other spending. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison in March.