WASHINGTON, D.C.— Dennis Kelleher, Co-founder, President, and CEO, issued the following statement in connection with the sentencing of Caroline Ellison.
“Justice was served today when Judge Kaplan sentenced FTX co-conspirator, Caroline Ellison, to a 24-month prison sentence, an order to forfeit about $11 billion, and three years of supervised release. Equal justice under the law requires that elite while collar criminals be punished appropriately and in a manner that deters others. Prison simply cannot be reserved for non-wealthy and, too often, nonwhite criminals. In fact, in terms of deterrence, one could argue that it’s more important to send elite white collar criminals to prison, as Better Markets pointed out earlier.
“Ellison was immensely helpful in convicting crooked crypto kingpin, former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), was in some ways also a victim of SBF, and was clearly remorseful. However, her egregious, knowing, years-long criminal conduct nonetheless merited a prison sentence. While she laudably fully cooperated after FTX blew up and much of SBF’s conduct was publicly exposed, she could have single-handedly stopped SBF’s crimes and prevented billions in losses to investors and customers if she had been a whistleblower and come forward earlier. She chose not to.
“The court’s message is clear: if you engage in extensive, damaging criminal activity, you must do prison time appropriate to the crimes, cooperation, and other circumstances. That’s why Judge Kaplan sentenced Sam Bankman-Fried to 25 years and Ryan Salame to 7 ½ years. Elite white-collar criminals, who are typically wealthy, highly educated and intelligent, and have privileged backgrounds, simply cannot believe they can get, as Judge Kaplan said, ‘get out of jail free cards’ just because they are while collar criminals or because they cooperate once caught.
“If Ellison were not to receive any prison time, that would send the wrong message: fraudsters can victimize countless investors, customers, and others, but get to walk away free if they come forward quickly and cooperate when the scheme collapses and becomes public. The elite white-collar criminals, who know better and calculate the risk of getting caught, simply must know that, if caught, they will see the inside of a prison cell. That will deter white collar crime and that is what equal justice under the law requires.”
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Better Markets is a non-profit, non-partisan, and independent organization founded to promote the public interest in the financial markets, support the financial reform of Wall Street and make our financial system work for all Americans again. Better Markets works with allies—including many in finance—to promote pro-market, pro-business and pro-growth policies that help build a stronger, safer financial system that protects and promotes Americans’ jobs, savings, retirements and more. To learn more, visit www.bettermarkets.org.
