FTX and Alameda Research executives likely to be freed on bail following plea deal
Rachel Schilke
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Two executives associated with FTX have reached a plea agreement with prosecutors allowing them to post bail in exchange for pleading guilty to their role in the multibillion-dollar cryptocurrency fraud.
FTX co-founder Gary Wang, 29, and Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison, 28, will post $250,000 in bail each, surrender their passports, and restrict travel to the continental United States in a plea deal after conceding that they played a factor in a scheme that tricked investors and destabilized the cryptocurrency industry, per CNBC.
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Both Wang and Ellison pleaded guilty to several fraud charges (including wire fraud, securities fraud, and commodities fraud) and signed their deals in the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office on Monday.
It is up to a judge to decide whether to approve the agreement, and prosecutors will not object to the bail conditions.
This comes as FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried arrived in the U.S. on Thursday for his initial court appearance on an eight-count indictment from federal prosecutors. He was extradited from the Bahamas on Wednesday.
Bankman-Fried faces charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud on customers and lenders, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit commodities and security fraud, a separate wire fraud on customers and lenders, violating campaign finance laws, and conspiracy to defraud the United States.
If convicted, he could face up to 115 years in prison.
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FTX, a once-prominent cryptocurrency firm, was discovered to have diverted billions of dollars in customer funds to Alameda Research, Bankman-Fried’s trading firm. Both companies have since gone bankrupt.