Things get complicated for Sam Bankman-Fried: while he finds himself faced with 8 charges, 2 of his former lieutenants, namely Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang, have agreed to help the justice system in their investigation. The 2 friends have also pleaded guilty to the various charges against them.
Sam Bankman-Fried finds himself isolated
Although not so long ago they were his closest collaborators, Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang both ganged up on Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of FTX soon to be arraigned in the United States.
The information was revealed by prosecutors for the Southern District of New York (where SBF must be heard), who indicated that they had filed a complaint against Caroline Ellison (ex-CEO of Alameda Research) and by Gary Wang (co-founder of FTX) in order to obtain their cooperation in their investigation of FTX.
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Via a statement, the US Attorney Damian Williams reported that former colleagues of Sam Bankman-Fried both pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with justice.
Statement of US Attorney Damian Williams on US v. Samuel Bankman-Fried, Caroline Ellison, and Gary Wang pic.twitter.com/u1y4cs3Koz
â US Attorney SDNY (@SDNYnews) December 22, 2022
The prosecutor took the opportunity to invite anyone involved in the FTX collapse to come to court of itself:
âAllow me to reiterate a call I made last week. If you contributed to the mismanagement of FTX or Alameda, now is the time to take the lead. We move quickly, and our patience is not eternal. »
Furthermore, Damian Williams also confirmed the information that SBF was on its way to the United States :
âSam Bankman-Fried is now in FBI custody and on his way back to the United States. He will be transported directly to the Southern District of New York, and he will appear before a judge in that district as soon as possible. »
Without naming a specific name, the prosecutor indicated that justice also planned to file a complaint against other personalities involved in the empire of FTX.
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Serious accusations against the 2 accomplices
Along with the aforementioned prosecutors, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have both filed civil charges against Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang.
SEC Chairman, Gary Gensler himself, published a press release to clarify what was alleged against the 2 accomplices:
âAs part of their deception, we allege that Caroline Ellison and Sam Bankman-Fried conspired to manipulate the price of FTT, an exchange token that was an integral part of FTX, to bolster the value of their house of cards. . […] We further allege that Ms. Ellison and Mr. Wang played an active role in a scheme to misuse FTX client assets to support Alameda and provide collateral for margin trading. »
Regarding the CFTC, the latter accuses Caroline Ellison of fraud and misrepresentation, and affirms that Gary Wang would have implemented hidden functions on the FTX platform allowing Alameda Research to draw on its reserves in an “unlimited” way. Furthermore, it appears that Alameda Research’s trading system favored its own platformin particular by reducing the time of its transactions or by concealing certain data.
Of course, the funds discussed here belonged to FTX clients.
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Source: New York Times
Image source: FTX Bankruptcy, common creative license
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