Alleged FTX Fraudster’s Girlfriend Pleads Guilty
Some of FTX’s multibillion-dollar fraud committed in Hong Kong, US indictments allege
By: Toh Han Shih
Caroline Ellison, a former girlfriend of former FTX chief executive officer (CEO) Samuel Bankman-Fried, and Gary Wang, a former FTX chief technology officer, have pleaded guilty to fraud charges and are cooperating with US prosecutors, officials said.
Some of the fraud related to FTX, which lost more than US$8 billion of customers’ money, occurred in Hong Kong, US authorities allege in their indictments of Wang and Ellison. The now-defunct crypto exchange maintained offices in the territory and enlisted Hong Kong residents as investors until it moved its domicile to the Bahamas in September 2021.
The 30-year-old Bankman-Fried and 29-year-old Wang studied together at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and co-founded FTX, which was once the world’s third largest crypto exchange. The concern, once worth $32 billion, filed for bankruptcy protection in the US on November 11. The 28-year-old Ellison is a former CEO of Alameda Research, a crypto hedge fund co-founded and previously majority-owned by Bankman-Fried.
Last week, Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas, Asia Sentinel reported on December 15. Bankman-Fried, once a crypto star who partied with former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and former US President Bill Clinton, was on his way to the US under FBI custody and will appear in a New York court “as soon as possible,” said US Attorney Damian Williams at a press conference on December 21…