2024.9.13 Sam Bankman-Fried appeals fraud conviction tied to FTX collapse
Sam Bankman-Fried appeals fraud conviction tied to FTX collapse
Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, was convicted because of a “false narrative” told by federal prosecutors at a trial “tainted” by errors, his attorneys argued in a new court filing Friday to a federal appeals court.
The video is from a previous report.
“Fair trial principles were swept away in a ‘Sentence first-verdict afterwards’ tsunami, as everyone rushed to judgment following FTX’s collapse,” defense attorneys wrote in the appeal. “Sam Bankman-Fried was never presumed innocent. He was presumed guilty-before he was even charged.”
Bankman-Fried was found guilty of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering last November after federal prosecutors in New York accused him of orchestrating a scheme that collapsed the crypto-exchange he founded, FTX, and stole $8 billion in customer funds.
He is serving a 25-year prison sentence, which his attorneys called “draconian.”
In Friday’s appeal, defense attorney Alexandra Shapiro attacked the trial judge, Lewis Kaplan, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, accusing them of lacking objectivity or even-handedness.
“He was presumed guilty by the media. He was presumed guilty by the FTX debtor estate and its lawyers. He was presumed guilty by federal prosecutors eager for quick headlines. And he was presumed guilty by the judge who presided over his trial,” the appeal said.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment, but will submit a written reply brief.
The defense asked for a reversal of Bankman-Fried’s conviction and a new trial before a different judge.
Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison, Bankman-Fried’s ex-girlfriend and a blockbuster witness for the prosecution, is set to be sentenced for her role in the fraud later this month.
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Sam Bankman-Fried 对与 FTX 崩盘有关的欺诈定罪提出上诉
破产加密货币交易所 FTX 的创始人 Sam Bankman-Fried因联邦检察官在一次“充满错误”的审判中提供的“虚假叙述”而被判有罪，他的律师在周五向联邦上诉法院提交的一份新法庭文件中辩称。
辩护律师在上诉书中写道：“在 FTX 倒闭后，每个人都急于做出判断，公平审判原则在‘先判后裁’的浪潮中被一扫而空。萨姆·班克曼-弗里德从未被推定无罪，他被推定有罪——甚至在他被指控之前。”
去年 11 月，纽约联邦检察官指控 Bankman-Fried 策划了一项阴谋，导致他创立的加密货币交易所 FTX 崩溃，并窃取了 80 亿美元的客户资金。随后，Bankman-Fried 被判犯有欺诈、共谋和洗钱罪。
他正在服刑 25 年，他的律师称这是“极其严厉的”刑期。
在周五的上诉中，辩护律师亚历山德拉·夏皮罗 (Alexandra Shapiro) 抨击了审判法官刘易斯·卡普兰 (Lewis Kaplan) 和纽约南区美国检察官办公室，指责他们缺乏客观性或公正性。
上诉书中称：“媒体推定他有罪，FTX 债务人遗产及其律师推定他有罪，急于登上头条新闻的联邦检察官推定他有罪，主持审判的法官也推定他有罪。”
美国检察官办公室拒绝发表评论，但将提交书面答复简报。
辩方要求撤销对班克曼-弗里德的定罪，并由另一位法官进行重新审判。
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FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried appeals fraud conviction
Lawyers for Sam Bankman-Fried claim in an appeal filed Friday that the imprisoned FTX founder was the victim of a rush to judgment by a public that wrongly believed he was guilty of stealing billions of dollars from his customers and investors before he was even arrested.
The lawyers filed papers with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals asking a three-judge panel to reverse Bankman-Fried’s conviction and assign the case to a new judge for a retrial, saying the trial judge “imposed a draconian quarter-century sentence on this first-time, non-violent offender” after they contend he hurried the jury into reaching a one-day verdict to cap off a complex four-week trial.
“Sam Bankman-Fried was never presumed innocent. He was presumed guilty — before he was even charged. He was presumed guilty by the media. He was presumed guilty by the FTX debtor estate and its lawyers. He was presumed guilty by federal prosecutors eager for quick headlines. And he was presumed guilty by the judge who presided over his trial,” the lawyers wrote.
They said the passing of time has cast Bankman-Fried in a better light.
“From day one, the prevailing narrative — initially spun by the lawyers who took over FTX, quickly adopted by their contacts at the U.S. Attorney’s Office — was that Bankman-Fried had stolen billions of dollars of customer funds, driven FTX to insolvency, and caused billions in losses,” the attorney said.
“Now, nearly two years later, a very different picture is emerging — one confirming FTX was never insolvent, and in fact had assets worth billions to repay its customers. But the jury at Bankman-Fried’s trial never got to see that picture,” they added.
Bankman-Fried, 32, was convicted last November of fraud and conspiracy, a year after his companies collapsed into bankruptcy as investors rushed to withdraw funds. A jury concluded that some of their money had been improperly spent on real estate, investments, celebrity endorsements, political contributions and lavish lifestyles.
At its height, FTX was treated as a pioneer and darling in the emerging cryptocurrency industry, with a Super Bowl advertisement, testimony by Bankman-Fried before Congress and endorsements from celebrities such as quarterback Tom Brady and comedian Larry David.
Bankman-Fried was arrested in December 2022 following his extradition from the Bahamas, just weeks after his company filed for bankruptcy and days after some of his former top executives began cooperating with federal prosecutors. Some of them testified against him at trial.
He initially remained under strict bail conditions at his parents’ home in Palo Alto, California, but Judge Lewis A. Kaplan in Manhattan revoked his bail shortly before the trial after concluding that Bankman-Fried was trying to influence likely witnesses, including an ex-girlfriend who had served as chief executive at Alameda Research, a crypto hedge fund.
The fallen mogul is serving a 25-year sentence after he was sentenced in March in what a prosecutor once described as one of the biggest financial frauds in U.S. history.
A prosecutor’s spokesperson declined to comment Friday.
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萨姆·班克曼-弗里德 (Sam Bankman-Fried) 的律师在周五提起的上诉中声称，被监禁的 FTX 创始人是公众仓促判断的受害者，公众错误地认为他在被捕之前就从客户和投资者手中窃取了数十亿美元。
律师向美国第二巡回上诉法院提交了文件，要求由三名法官组成的小组撤销对班克曼-弗里德的定罪，并将此案交由新的法官重新审理，称审判法官“对这名初犯、非暴力罪犯判处了严厉的四分之一世纪徒刑”，因为他们认为审判法官催促陪审团在一天内做出裁决，以结束为期四周的复杂审判。
“萨姆·班克曼-弗里德从未被推定无罪。他被推定有罪——甚至在他被指控之前。他被媒体推定有罪。他被 FTX 债务人财产及其律师推定有罪。他被急于登上头条新闻的联邦检察官推定有罪。主持审判的法官也推定他有罪，”律师写道。
“从第一天起，流行的说法就是，Bankman-Fried 窃取了数十亿美元的客户资金，导致 FTX 破产，并造成了数十亿美元的损失。”该律师表示。这种说法最初由接管 FTX 的律师编造，并很快被他们在美国检察官办公室的联系人采纳。
“现在，近两年过去了，情况却大不相同——FTX 从未破产，而且实际上拥有价值数十亿美元的资产来偿还客户。但 Bankman-Fried 一案的陪审团从未看到过这一幕，”他们补充道。
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Sam Bankman-Fried Files Appeal to Overturn Fraud Conviction
Mr. Bankman-Fried, the founder of the collapsed FTX cryptocurrency exchange, was convicted last fall and is serving a 25-year sentence in prison.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, filed an appeal on Friday, attacking the judge who oversaw his conviction on charges that he orchestrated a sweeping fraud to steal $8 billion from customers.
A federal jury found Mr. Bankman-Fried guilty of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering after a monthlong trial in New York last fall. In March, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of Federal District Court in Manhattan sentenced Mr. Bankman-Fried to 25 years in prison.
In the 102-page appeal, a lawyer for Mr. Bankman-Fried called for a new trial, pointing to several rulings by Judge Kaplan that limited the FTX founder’s ability to introduce evidence and hampered his defense.
“Sam Bankman-Fried was never presumed innocent,” wrote the lawyer, Alexandra A.E. Shapiro. “He was presumed guilty by the judge who presided over his trial.”
A spokesman for Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan, said the office had no plans to comment on the filing.
An appeal of a federal conviction is always a long shot. Mr. Bankman-Fried, 32, has maintained he is innocent from the moment prosecutors charged him with fraud shortly after FTX collapsed in November 2022. He has been serving his sentence at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he has been held since shortly before his trial.
Just two years ago, Mr. Bankman-Fried was a billionaire crypto icon, his face plastered on billboards and magazine covers. But a run on deposits at FTX exposed an $8 billion hole in its accounts, causing the company to implode and prompting a criminal investigation.
Three of Mr. Bankman-Fried’s top advisers at FTX pleaded guilty to fraud and testified against him at trial. The first of those cooperators, Caroline Ellison, who was Mr. Bankman-Fried’s on-and-off girlfriend, is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 24.
In the appeal, Ms. Shapiro criticized a ruling by Judge Kaplan that prevented Mr. Bankman-Fried from arguing in court that FTX’s users had not actually lost money, because they are poised to recover funds in the bankruptcy process.
“The government thus presented a false narrative that FTX’s customers, lenders, and investors had permanently lost their money,” the filing said. “The jury was only allowed to see half the picture.”
The filing also argued that Judge Kaplan had improperly prevented Mr. Bankman-Fried from testifying that he relied on legal advice to make some of the business decisions that prosecutors attacked at the trial. Mr. Bankman-Fried spent several days on the witness stand, in a risky bid to win the jury’s sympathy.
Ms. Shapiro took issue with an order Judge Kaplan made during the trial that required Mr. Bankman-Fried to sit for “a pre-testimony deposition” outside the presence of the jury, before he took the stand. The judge said the hearing was necessary to decide how much Mr. Bankman-Fried could tell the jury about his discussions with FTX’s lawyers.
Ms. Shapiro argued that the preview of Mr. Bankman-Fried’s testimony was an “unprecedented proceeding” that “permitted a prosecutor to conduct cross-examination going way beyond the supposed purpose of this preview hearing.”
A new trial should be conducted before a different judge, the filing said.
“The judge repeatedly made biting comments undermining the defense,” Ms. Shapiro wrote. “Even deriding the defendant’s own testimony during the preview hearing and in front of the jury.”
Mr. Bankman-Fried’s lawyer also objected to the role of Sullivan & Cromwell, which served as FTX’s outside legal counsel and later became its main bankruptcy lawyer. She argued the law firm wrongfully pushed him to resign as FTX’s chief executive and became a de facto arm of the government by providing information to federal prosecutors.
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(nytimes)
Sam Bankman-Fried 提起上诉，要求推翻欺诈定罪
已倒闭的加密货币交易所 FTX 的创始人 Bankman-Fried 先生去年秋天被判有罪，目前正在服刑 25 年。
已倒闭的加密货币交易所 FTX 的创始人萨姆·班克曼-弗里德 (Sam Bankman-Fried)于周五提起上诉，法官指控他策划了一场大规模欺诈，窃取了客户 80 亿美元。
去年秋天，经过一个月的纽约审判后，联邦陪审团裁定班克曼-弗里德犯有欺诈、共谋和洗钱罪。今年三月，曼哈顿联邦地区法院法官刘易斯·A·卡普兰判处班克曼-弗里德 25 年监禁。
在长达 102 页的上诉书中，Bankman-Fried 的律师要求重新审判，指出 Kaplan 法官的几项裁决限制了 FTX 创始人提交证据的能力并妨碍了他的辩护。
“萨姆·班克曼-弗里德从未被推定无罪，”律师亚历山德拉·AE·夏皮罗写道。“主持审判的法官推定他有罪。”
纽约曼哈顿南区美国检察官达米安·威廉姆斯 (Damian Williams) 的发言人表示，该办公室没有计划对该文件发表评论。
对联邦定罪的上诉总是遥遥无期。32 岁的 Bankman-Fried 先生自 2022 年 11 月 FTX 倒闭后不久检察官指控他犯有欺诈罪以来一直坚称自己是无辜的。他一直在布鲁克林大都会拘留中心服刑，自审判前不久他就一直被关押在那里。
就在两年前，Bankman-Fried 还是一位亿万富翁，他的头像出现在广告牌和杂志封面上。但 FTX 的存款挤兑暴露了其账户中 80 亿美元的漏洞，导致该公司崩溃并引发刑事调查。
Bankman-Fried 在 FTX 的三名高级顾问承认犯有欺诈罪，并在审判中作证指控他。其中第一位合作者是Caroline Ellison，她是 Bankman-Fried 分分合合的女友，定于 9 月 24 日宣判。
在上诉中，夏皮罗批评了卡普兰法官的一项裁决，该裁决阻止了班克曼-弗里德在法庭上辩称 FTX 的用户实际上并没有损失钱，因为他们准备在破产过程中收回资金。
该文件称：“因此，政府提出了虚假陈述，称 FTX 的客户、贷方和投资者永久失去了资金。”“陪审团只被允许看到一半的情况。”
起诉书还称，卡普兰法官不正当地阻止了班克曼-弗里德出庭作证，称他依靠法律建议做出了一些被检察官在庭审中抨击的商业决策。班克曼-弗里德在证人席上待了好几天，冒险赢得陪审团的同情。
夏皮罗女士对卡普兰法官在审判期间做出的命令提出异议，该命令要求班克曼-弗里德先生在出庭作证之前在陪审团不在场的情况下接受“作证前证词”。法官表示，听证会是必要的，以决定班克曼-弗里德先生可以向陪审团透露多少有关他与 FTX 律师讨论的内容。
夏皮罗女士辩称，对班克曼-弗里德先生证词的预览是一个“前所未有的程序”，“允许检察官进行远远超出本次预览听证会预期目的的交叉询问”。
文件称，应由不同的法官进行新的审判。
“法官反复发表尖锐的言论，削弱辩护，”夏皮罗女士写道。“甚至在预审听证会和陪审团面前嘲笑被告自己的证词。”
Bankman-Fried 的律师还对 Sullivan & Cromwell 所扮演的角色表示反对，该公司曾担任 FTX 的外部法律顾问，后来成为其主要的破产律师。她认为，这家律师事务所错误地迫使他辞去 FTX 首席执行官一职，并通过向联邦检察官提供信息，成为事实上的政府机构。
2024.9.11 Caroline Ellison, a former top executive in FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried ’s collapsed cryptocurrency empire and his former girlfriend, is seeking no prison time at her sentencing later this month.
Key witness in trial of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried seeks no prison time at upcoming sentencing
Caroline Ellison, a former top executive in FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s collapsed cryptocurrency empire, is seeking no prison time at her sentencing later this month
September 11, 2024
NEW YORK — Caroline Ellison, a former top executive in FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried ’s collapsed cryptocurrency empire and his former girlfriend, is seeking no prison time at her sentencing later this month.
Lawyers for Ellison made the request shortly before midnight Tuesday in a filing in Manhattan federal court in advance of a sentencing scheduled for Sept. 24.
The lawyers cited her immediate and extensive cooperation with U.S. authorities when FTX and related companies collapsed in November 2022, and they noted that the court’s Probation Department recommended that she serve no prison time.
Ellison, 29, pleaded guilty nearly two years ago in the prosecution and testified against Bankman-Fried for nearly three days at his trial last November. After his conviction, Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Without her cooperation, Ellison could have faced decades in prison.
“Caroline blames no one but herself for what she did,” the lawyers wrote. “She regrets her role deeply and will carry shame and remorse to her grave.”
In the presentence arguments, the lawyers spoke extensively about Ellison’s on-and-off romantic relationship with Bankman-Fried that stretched over several years.
They said the relationship and her appointment to a role as chief executive at Alameda Research, FTX’s hedge fund affiliate, contributed to her committing crimes at Bankman-Fried’s direction.
She testified at trial that that she divulged a massive fraud to employees even before FTX filed for bankruptcy in November 2022.
She explained to them that funds from FTX investors were improperly used to cover billions of dollars lost by Bankman-Fried in investments or squandered on charity donations, political contributions and purchases that fueled his high-flying lifestyle.
By early December 2022, she was fully cooperating with federal prosecutors, divulging information about Bankman-Fried’s dealings that led directly to some of the charges brought against him in the following weeks, the lawyers wrote.
“Over time, Caroline’s moral compass warped,” the lawyers said. “At Mr. Bankman-Fried’s direction, she took actions that she knew to be wrong, helping him steal billions. She lived in dread, knowing that a disastrous collapse was likely, but fearing that disentangling herself would only hasten that collapse.
“When FTX finally collapsed, Caroline felt intense sadness for all the people they had betrayed, but also tremendous relief, because she did not have to go on lying and stealing for Mr. Bankman-Fried,” they added.
Since testifying at Bankman-Fried’s trial, Ellison has continued to suffer even as she has engaged in extensive charity work, written a novel and worked with her parents on a math enrichment textbook for advanced high school students, according to her lawyers.
“She has been rendered effectively unemployable in the near term by the notoriety arising from this case, and the reputational harm is not likely to abate any time soon,” they said. “Caroline was not motivated by greed and did not take steps to personally profit at the expense of customers.”
She now has a healthy romantic relationship and has reconnected with high school friends she had lost touch with after working for Bankman-Fried from 2017 until November 2022, according to the court papers.
In addition, her lawyers said, she is finalizing agreements with the government, the FTX debtors, along with a comprehensive settlement with in the FTX-related multidistrict litigation that she expects will leave her without anything she earned while employed at Alameda.
Prosecutors were expected to file their presentence arguments prior to sentencing.
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Caroline Ellison seeks to duck prison sentence for role in FTX collapse
Key Points
Lawyers for Caroline Ellison say the former Alameda Research CEO shouldn’t go to prison for her role in the implosion of Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire.
Ellison was the star witness for the Department of Justice in its prosecution of FTX founder Bankman-Fried, who was also an ex-boyfriend.
Ellison’s attorneys suggested in a filing that their client should be sentenced to time served and supervised release because of her swift cooperation with the government.
Lawyers for Caroline Ellison, the star witness in the prosecution of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, are recommending no prison time for their client’s role in the implosion of the crypto empire that was run by her former boss and ex-boyfriend.
In a court filing Tuesday night, the attorneys said that, at most, Ellison should be sentenced to time served and supervised release because of her swift return to the U.S. from FTX’s Bahamas headquarters in 2022 and her choice to voluntarily cooperate with the U.S. attorney’s office and financial regulators in helping them understand what went wrong at FTX and sister hedge fund Alameda Research.
Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over Bankman-Fried’s case, cited Ellison’s testimony when he decided in March to sentence the FTX founder to 25 years behind bars.
Ellison, who ran Alameda Research, agreed to a plea deal in December 2022, a month after FTX spiraled into bankruptcy. Unlike Bankman-Fried, who was convicted of all seven criminal fraud charges against him, Ellison pleaded guilty to conspiracy and financial fraud charges, rather than go to trial.
The Tuesday filing also refers to the recommendation of the court’s Probation Department that Ellison be given a sentence of “time served with three years of supervised release” as a credit to her “extraordinary cooperation with the government” and “her otherwise unblemished record.” Lawyers added that the department’s presentence report, which referenced numerous character testimonials speaking to Ellison’s ethics and integrity, also recommended that she not be fined.
“Caroline poses no risk of recidivism and presents no threat to public safety,” the filing says. “It would therefore promote respect for the law to grant leniency in recognition of Caroline’s early disclosure of the crimes, her unmitigated acceptance of responsibility for them, and — most importantly — her extensive cooperation with the government.”
In the filing, FTX CEO John Ray, who has been guiding the crypto firm through bankruptcy proceedings, describes Ellison’s cooperation as “valuable” in helping his team protect and preserve “hundreds of millions of dollars” in assets. He added that she has worked with his advisors to provide information regarding private keys to cryptocurrency wallets that contain “estate assets, DeFi positions, FTX exchange internal account information, the use of third-party exchanges for pre-petition trading, and pre-petition auditing practices.”
The 67-page document describe large swaths of Ellison’s life, starting from her earliest days in Boston and stretching into her protracted and troubled romance with Bankman-Fried. In that time, she “moved around the globe at his direction, first to Hong Kong and later the Bahamas,” and “worked long, stressful, Adderall-fueled hours,” the filing says.
Bankman-Fried forced Ellison into a sort-of isolation, culminating in her moral compass being “warped,” the lawyers say. At his direction, Ellison helped “steal billions,” all while living “in dread, knowing that a disastrous collapse was likely, but fearing that disentangling herself would only hasten that collapse.”
“Bankman-Fried convinced her to stay, telling her she was essential to the survival of the business, and that he loved her,” all “while also perversely demonstrating that he considered her not good enough to be seen in public with him at high-profile events,” the filing says.
An attorney for Bankman-Fried didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The document makes a point of noting that she has “drawn comfort from a new partner,” whose name is omitted from the document, but whom her friends recognize as “supportive and a positive, grounding influence.” She’s also written a novel, that’s “unrelated to the facts of this case.”
Ellison, who turns 30 in November, has a sentencing hearing on Sept. 24, in the same courthouse where she took the stand for several days in Bankman-Fried’s trial. Her former roommates and ex-FTX executives, Nishad Singh and Gary Wang, will be sentenced in October and November, respectively.
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Caroline Ellison Shouldn’t Go to Jail After FTX Collapse, Attorneys Say
Key Points
Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison should be sentenced to time served and supervised release at most, her attorneys said in a late Tuesday filing.
Despite her role in propping up FTX and Alameda, Ellison cooperated with prosecutors, FTX’s bankruptcy estate and creditors, the filing said.
A presentence report similarly recommended no prison term or fine, the filing said.
Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison should be sentenced to time served and supervised release for her role in FTX’s operation and subsequent collapse, her attorneys said in a filing late Tuesday night.
Ellison, one of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s top lieutenants, testified against him at his trial last year, where he was convicted on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy. Ellison had previously pleaded guilty to fraud tied to FTX’s operation shortly after the exchange filed for bankruptcy in the fall of 2022. In Tuesday night’s filing, her attorneys noted that the Probation Department had filed a presentence report recommending three years of supervised release due to her “extraordinary cooperation with the government” and the character testimonials accompanying the submission. The presentence report also recommended that Ellison not be fined.
“[Ellison] poses no risk of recidivism and presents no threat to public safety. It would therefore promote respect for the law to grant leniency in recognition of [Ellison’s] early disclosure of the crimes, her unmitigated acceptance of responsibility for them, and – most importantly – her extensive cooperation with the government,” the filing said.
The document outlined Ellison’s childhood, college and early career, including meeting Bankman-Fried at Jane Street and eventually joining Alameda Research, Bankman-Fried’s first company.
Ellison began taking Adderall and had an on-again, off-again relationship with Bankman-Fried during her time at Alameda (which the document described as Bankman-Fried repeatedly ghosting her), the attorneys said. As part of her role at Alameda, she became isolated from friends when she moved to Hong Kong shortly before COVID lockdowns shuttered travel between there and the U.S.
The sentencing submission was accompanied by diary entries, statements about her cooperation with FTX’s bankruptcy estate and letters from former colleagues, friends and family. Some of these names have been redacted, though Inner City Press has requested that the court at least allow a hearing to argue for unredacting these names. Ellison’s attorneys said in an initial filing that the people who wrote the letters are at risk of harassment or doxing, and at least one letter said it was written by another former Alameda Research employee.
John J. Ray III, the CEO of the FTX bankruptcy estate, wrote that Ellison’s assistance was “valuable” in helping his team take over the exchange as it was falling apart, and that the estate was close to a settlement with Ellison where she would “turn over … substantially all of her remaining assets” and continue assisting the bankruptcy team in restructuring FTX and its affiliated entities.
Similarly, attorneys who filed class action lawsuits against FTX’s former executives said she “provided valuable assistance” to help them recover funds for FTX’s creditors. Robert Cleary, the court-appointed examiner, also wrote a (brief) message saying Ellison was helpful.
Ellison’s diary entries – a select few pages anyway – also lay out her thought process during her time at Alameda, describing her mood, how work and her relationship with Bankman-Fried affected her and her thoughts on how to improve her life (taking a day off work, going outside, keeping in touch with friends and reducing her Adderall dosage, among other possible remedies).
Ellison is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 24, 2024, in the same courthouse where Bankman-Fried went on trial. Fellow FTX executives Nishad Singh and Gary Wang will also be sentenced this year, in October and November.
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卡罗琳·埃里森 (Caroline Ellison) 曾是 FTX 创始人 Sam Bankman-Fried 倒闭的加密货币帝国的前高管，她在本月底的宣判中寻求不监禁
埃里森的律师于周二午夜前向曼哈顿联邦法院提交了一份文件，提出了这一请求，该法院将于 9 月 24 日宣判。
这份长达 67 页的文件描述了埃里森生活的方方面面，从她在波士顿的早期生活开始，一直到她与班克曼-弗里德之间漫长而坎坷的恋情。文件称，在那段时间里，她“按照他的指示在全球各地搬家，先是去香港，后来去了巴哈马”，并且“工作时间长，压力大，服用阿德拉后精神亢奋”。
律师们列举了她在 2022 年 11 月 FTX 及其相关公司倒闭时立即与美国当局进行广泛合作的例子，并指出法院的缓刑部门建议她不服刑。
29 岁的埃里森近两年前在检方认罪，并在去年 11 月的审判中作证近三天。定罪后，班克曼-弗里德被判处 25 年监禁。如果没有她的合作，埃里森可能会面临数十年的监禁。
“卡罗琳不会责怪任何人，只会责怪自己，”律师写道。“她对自己的行为深感后悔，并将带着羞耻和悔恨进入坟墓。”
在判前辩论中，律师详细谈到了埃里森与班克曼-弗里德之间持续数年的断断续续的恋爱关系。
他们表示，这种关系以及她被任命为 FTX 的对冲基金附属公司 Alameda Research 的首席执行官，导致了她在 Bankman-Fried 的指示下犯罪。
她在审判中作证说，早在 FTX 于 2022 年 11 月申请破产之前，她就向员工泄露了一项大规模欺诈行为。
她向他们解释说，FTX 投资者的资金被不当用于弥补 Bankman-Fried 在投资中损失的数十亿美元，或被挥霍在慈善捐款、政治捐款和支持他奢侈生活方式的购买上。
律师写道，到 2022 年 12 月初，她全力配合联邦检察官，泄露了有关 Bankman-Fried 交易的信息，这些信息直接导致了接下来几周对他提出的一些指控。
“随着时间的推移，卡罗琳的道德准则开始扭曲，”律师们说。“在班克曼-弗里德先生的指示下，她做了一些明知是错的事情，帮助他窃取数十亿美元。她生活在恐惧之中，知道灾难性的崩溃即将来临，但她担心自己脱离困境只会加速这种崩溃。
据她的律师说，自从在班克曼-弗里德的审判中作证以来，埃里森一直在遭受痛苦，尽管她从事了大量的慈善工作，写了一本小说，还和父母一起编写了一本针对高年级高中生的数学补习教科书。
法庭文件显示，她现在拥有健康的恋爱关系，并与高中朋友重新建立了联系。在 2017 年至 2022 年 11 月为 Bankman-Fried 工作后，她与这些朋友失去了联系。
该文件特别指出，她“从一位新伴侣那里得到了安慰”，文件中没有提到这位新伴侣的名字，但她的朋友们都认为这位新伴侣“给予了她支持，并产生了积极、扎实的影响”。她还写了一本小说，但“与本案事实无关”。
埃里森将于 11 月迎来 30 岁生日，她将于 9 月 24 日在同一个法院接受量刑听证会，她在 Bankman-Fried 的审判中曾出庭作证数天。她的前室友、前 FTX 高管尼沙德·辛格（Nishad Singh）和加里·王（Gary Wang ）将分别于 10 月和 11 月接受量刑。
2024.7.9 Sentencing hearings have been scheduled for two former executives of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX who testified against founder Sam Bankman-Fried, court records showed on Tuesday. Nishad Singh will be sentenced on Oct. 30 and Gary Wang will be sentenced on Nov. 20 in Manhattan federal court.
Ex-FTX executives who testified against Bankman-Fried to be sentenced
By Reuters
NEW YORK, July 9 (Reuters) – Sentencing hearings have been scheduled for two former executives of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX who testified against founder Sam Bankman-Fried, court records showed on Tuesday.
Nishad Singh will be sentenced on Oct. 30 and Gary Wang will be sentenced on Nov. 20 in Manhattan federal court. Each pleaded guilty to fraud.
Bankman-Fried in March was sentenced to 25 years in prison after being convicted last year of stealing $8 billion from FTX customers, in what prosecutors called one of the largest financial frauds in U.S. history.
Prosecutors are expected to ask U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan to take Singh’s and Wang’s cooperation into account when determining their punishments.
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作证指控 Bankman-Fried 的前 FTX 高管将被判刑
纽约 7 月 9 日 （路透社）——周二的法庭记录显示，破产加密货币交易所 FTX 的两名前高管已安排举行量刑听证会，他们曾对创始人 Sam Bankman-Fried罪行 作证。
尼沙德·辛格将于 10 月 30 日在曼哈顿联邦法院接受宣判，加里·王将于 11 月 20 日接受宣判。两人均承认犯有欺诈罪。
班克曼-弗里德去年因窃取 FTX 客户 80 亿美元而被判处 25 年监禁，检察官称这是美国历史上最大的金融欺诈案之一。
预计检察官将要求美国地区法官刘易斯·卡普兰 (Lewis Kaplan) 在确定辛格和王的惩罚时考虑他们的合作情况。
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