Who is Caroline Ellison? The former CEO of Alameda facing 110 years in prison for fraud

When the money is rolling in, life feels good. But when it stops, it can hit hard. And even harded if it stops with a potential punishment for how it was being obtained spending the rest of that apparently sweet life behind bars.

This is simplistic take on the situation facing a number of those involved in the FTX crypto fraud case. The company’s founder and former Chief Executive, Sam Bankman-Fried, has been making much of the headlines over the fraud charges against him in the United States due to its recent collapse. But he was not alone in the organisation.

Who is FTX’s Caroline Ellison?

On Wednesday we heard via a statement from prosecutors that former CEO of Alameda Research, Caroline Ellison, had pleaded guilty to defrauding investors in FTX. That statement added that she was now cooperating fully with federal investigators on the case. It’s obviously too early to know how this cooperation may affect her sentence.

28 year-old Ellison grew up in Massachusetts, where both of her parents are economics professors at MIT. After graduating from Stanford University with a degree in mathematics in 2016, she began her career at quantitative trading firm Jane Street, she said on a now-defunct FTX podcast from July 2020. According to the podcast, Ellison met Bankman-Fried for coffee about a year and a half into his role, where he first told her about Alameda Research.

She joined the firm in 2018 as a trader and was named co-CEO with Sam Trabucco in October 2021, eventually becoming the company’s sole CEO. Bankman-Fried acknowledged that he and Ellison had “been together for a while” at a Twitter Spaces event on 1 December, but declined to elaborate.

Ellison has stated her belief in effective altruism, a popular philanthropic movement among Silicon Valley executives. She did not return phone calls or an email from Reuters seeking comment.

Other top officials involved in Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire

Who is Gary Wang?

Gary Wang co-founded FTX and Alameda Research with Bankman-Fried, and served as FTX’s chief technology officer. He and Bankman-Fried met at a math camp in high school and became college roommates, Bankman-Fried wrote in a now-unavailable FTX blog.

Wang worked as a software engineer at Google before co-founding FTX and Alameda, according to an archived webpage for the FTX Future Fund, the company’s charitable effort. In April, Forbes estimated his net worth at $5.9 billion.

“Gary has accepted responsibility for his actions and takes seriously his obligations as a cooperating witness,” Ilan Graff, a lawyer for Wang, said in a statement on Wednesday. Graff declined to comment further on Thursday.

Who is Nishad Singh?

Nishad Singh was a best friend of Bankman-Fried’s brother in high school, Bankman-Fried wrote in the deleted blog post. After working for a period at Alameda Research, Singh became FTX’s director of engineering in 2019, according to CNBC.

Singh contributed more than $8 million to political campaigns in the 2022 election cycle, all to Democrats, according to OpenSecrets. He did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

Who is Sam Trabucco?

Sam Trabucco, the former co-CEO of Alameda Research who stepped down in August but remained as an advisor, met Bankman-Fried in 2010 at a five-week math camp at Mount Holyoke College, according to Insider.

Trabucco graduated from MIT in 2015 with a degree in math and computer science, according to an internet archive of Alameda’s website. Before joining Alameda, he worked as a trader at Susquehanna International Group’s bond ETF desk.

Trabucco did not respond to an email or a Twitter message requesting comment.

Who is Dan Friedberg?

Dan Friedberg, former chief regulatory officer at FTX, was the crypto exchange’s “legal advisor from the very beginning,” Bankman-Fried wrote in the deleted blog post.

Friedberg is a lawyer who also served as the legal counsel for both FTX and Alameda at times. He did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

Who is Ryan Salame?

Ryan Salame, the co-CEO of FTX’s Bahamian subsidiary, worked for Ernst & Young and Circle Internet Financial before joining FTX Digital Markets in 2021, according to a profile on the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s website, where he established a scholarship fund.

Salame was one of the top political donors in the 2022 election cycle donating more than $23 million to Republican campaigns, according to OpenSecrets.

Days before FTX filed for bankruptcy and Bankman-Fried stepped down as CEO, Salame informed the Securities Commission of the Bahamas that client assets held at FTX Digital Markets may have been transferred to Alameda, according to a court filing Wednesday by the agency. Salame did not respond to a phone call or a LinkedIn message requesting comment.