FTX’s co-founder Gary Wang and former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison have both pleaded guilty to wire fraud charges and accepted plead deals.
Wang pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud.
Ellison pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud, two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
They both accepted plea agreements that offer reduced sentencing in exchange for assistance in ongoing investigations into wrongdoing at FTX/Alameda that prove “substantial.”
Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was en route from the Bahamas to New York, where he faces eight federal criminal charges from the same prosecutors who accepted plea deals from Ellison and Wang.
Ellison and Wang are likely to be key witnesses for the feds in the SBF case, given that they are most likely to have direct and best knowledge that SBF knew about use of FTX customer funds to cover Alameda’s risky crypto trading bets.
Both Ellison and Wang also face civil penalties from the SEC and CFTC, announced alongside the criminal charges.
The SEC alleged that they were involved “in a multiyear scheme to defraud equity investors in FTX, the crypto trading platform co-founded by Samuel Bankman-Fried and Wang.”
The CFTC’s expanded complaint charges “Ellison with fraud and material misrepresentations in connection with the sale of digital asset commodities in interstate commerce, and charges Wang with fraud in connection with the sale of digital asset commodities in interstate commerce.”
“As I said last week, this investigation is very much ongoing,” U.S Attorney Damian Williams said in a prerecorded message.
“I also said that last’s week announcement would not be our last. And let me be clear, once again, neither is today’s.”
