Former FTX executive Caroline Ellison said she deserves no prison time for her role in one of the largest financial frauds in history and federal prosecutors seem inclined to agree.Ellison's attorneys urged Judge Lewis Kaplan to be lenient when he sentences her Tuesday afternoon, arguing Ellison "unflinchingly acknowledged her own wrongdoing, without minimization, blame shifting or self-pity." They added, "She time and again proved herself an enormously credible and important cooperating witness" against her on again-off again boyfriend, former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.Ellison testified for three days at Bankman-Fried's trial that ended with a conviction on all seven counts: wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud on FTX's customers; wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud on Alameda Research's lenders; conspiracy to commit securities fraud on FTX's investors; conspiracy to commit commodities fraud on FTX's customers; and conspiracy to commit money laundering.Federal prosecutors agreed Ellison provided "extraordinary cooperation that was crucial to the Government's successful prosecution" of Bankman-Fried."Although she did not blow the whistle on any misconduct before FTX's collapse, she came clean prior to FTX's declaring bankruptcy to her employees on November 9, 2022," prosecutor Danielle Sassoon wrote in a letter to the judge."Ellison approached her cooperation with remarkable candor, remorse, and seriousness."Former crypto hedge fund Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison at Federal Court in New York City, Oct.
10, 2023.Cheney Orr/Reuters, FILEProsecutors declined to make a specific sentencing recommendation.Defense attorneys suggested a sentence in line with a recommendation from probation officials of time served plus three years supervised release."Caroline 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 Caroline's early disclosure of the c...