29 Facts About Caroline Ellison

Caroline Ellison was born on November 1994 and is an American business executive and convicted felon.

Caroline Ellison was the CEO of Alameda Research, a trading firm affiliated with FTX and founded by Sam Bankman-Fried.

Caroline Ellison was terminated from her position after FTX and Alameda filed for bankruptcy.

In 2022, Caroline Ellison pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud, two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Caroline Ellison was born in Boston and grew up in nearby suburbs Cambridge and Newton.

Caroline Ellison is the eldest of three daughters of Glenn and Sara Fisher Ellison, both economists at MIT.

Caroline Ellison says she and her siblings were exposed to economics early, learning Bayesian statistics in primary school.

At age 8, Caroline Ellison gave her father an economic study of stuffed animal prices from Toys "R" Us for his birthday.

In 2008, Caroline Ellison received top honors in the American Mathematics Competitions.

Caroline Ellison competed in the Greater Boston Math League through her high school and served as the team's captain.

Caroline Ellison represented Newton several times in the Math Prize for Girls.

Caroline Ellison graduated in 2012 with a National Merit Scholarship.

Caroline Ellison graduated from Stanford University in 2016 with a bachelor's degree in mathematics.

Caroline Ellison joined Stanford's effective altruism club and served as its vice president.

In September 2016, Caroline Ellison joined Jane Street full-time as an equities trader in a cohort mentored by Sam Bankman-Fried, who left the firm a year later to serve as director of development at the Centre for Effective Altruism in Berkeley, California.

Caroline Ellison and Bankman-Fried bonded over interest in effective altruism and remained in contact.

In February 2018, while visiting the San Francisco Bay Area, Caroline Ellison met Bankman-Fried for coffee and he pitched her on joining Alameda Research, a cryptocurrency hedge fund co-founded in November 2017 by Bankman-Fried and effective altruism colleague Tara Mac Aulay.

Caroline Ellison said her "blind leap" was based on excitement over arbitraging cryptocurrencies and the potential to further her pursuit of earning to give.

When she joined, Caroline Ellison had more experience than most of the other traders.

Caroline Ellison became co-CEO along with Sam Trabucco in October 2021.

Caroline Ellison became the sole CEO of Alameda Research in August 2022 after Trabucco stepped down.

On 6 November 2022, after CoinDesk raised concerns about the balance sheet of Alameda Research and its relationship with FTX, Caroline Ellison said that the balance sheet information which had been released only included some of Alameda's assets, and that the firm had more than $10 billion of additional assets.

In December 2022, Caroline Ellison hired Stephanie Avakian of law firm WilmerHale as her lead attorney.

Caroline Ellison told Judge Abrams that Sam Bankman-Fried and other FTX executives had received billions of dollars in secret loans from Alameda Research.

In October 2023, Caroline Ellison testified for the prosecution in the fraud trial of Bankman-Fried.

On 24 September 2024 Caroline Ellison was sentenced to serve two years in prison and ordered to forfeit $11 billion to the court.

Caroline Ellison commenced her sentence at a prison in Connecticut in early November 2024.

In December 2024, The Washington Post reported Caroline Ellison's sentence has been reduced by a few months, with the release date now in July 2026.

Business Insider said that Caroline Ellison's alleged relationship with Bankman-Fried was singled out by CoinDesk.