Which FTX and Alameda executives are going to prison and when?

FTX and Alameda Research’s antics devastated the cryptocurrency ecosystem nearly two years ago when it was revealed by CoinDesk reporting that Alameda execs had used FTX as a piggy bank for their trading activities.

Over the last two years, several of those executives have been charged with various crimes, and some have already been sentenced to prison, among them former FTX CEO and Alameda founder, Sam Bankman-Fried.

Sam Bankman-Fried

Bankman-Fried was found guilty by a jury of his peers of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

He had previously been charged with other counts that have been dismissed, including conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business, conspiracy to defraud the Federal Election Commission (FEC), conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud related to derivatives, and other charges.

Bankman-Fried has been sentenced to 25 years in prisonand according to the Bureau of Prisons website, he is currently held at Brooklyn MDC.

Read more: Binance founder Changpeng Zhao sentenced to 4 months in prison

Ryan Salame

Ryan Salame, the former CEO of FTX DM, the Bahamas-based entity, pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmission business and conspiracy to make illegal political contributions.

Salame was originally meant to surrender on August 29, but after his face was damaged by a dog attack, he was given a 45-day continuance, pushing his surrender to October 13.

Salame has repeatedly taken to so far, he you have yet to present the information he claims will exonerate him of the crimes he convicted guilty of.

Caroline Ellison

Caroline Ellison was the co-CEO of Alameda Research and the on-again, off-again sexual and romantic partner of Bankman-Fried. She cooperated with the investigation into Bankman-Fried and has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

She’s also been cooperating in the ongoing bankruptcy case, providing messages and testimony that have contributed to the various lawsuits filed by the debtors-in-possession.

Ellison’s testimony was some of the most important for the prosecution, helping provide evidence of Bankman-Fried’s knowledge, both of the problems and of the legal impropriety.

Her sentencing has yet to be scheduled.

Read more: Has CZ followed a Solana news account while in prison?

Gary Wang

Zixiao ‘Gary’ Wang was a close friend of Bankman-Fried as well as co-founder and CTO of FTX.

He has been cooperating with the prosecution of Bankman-Fried and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, and conspiracy to commit securities fraud.

Wang testified that Alameda Research was given special privileges on FTX as early as 2019 and noted that these enabled it to end up with a negative balance on the exchange immediately almost.

His sentencing has been scheduled for November 20.

Nishad Singh

Nishad Singh was a co-founder and director of engineering for FTX.

He’s been cooperating with Bankman-Fried’s prosecution and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and conspiracy to make illegal political contributions.

Singh testified about how various loans and donations were structured, including a loan that was nominally to him but never hit his bank account.

His sentencing has been scheduled for October 30.

Not yet indicted

Several of the individuals and executives who were closely connected to FTX and Alameda have so far avoided prosecution.

These include Bankman-Fried’s parents, Joshua Bankman and Barbara Fried, who have been involved in various parts of the operation of the firms in testimony and in a lawsuit filed by the debtors-in-possession of FTX. They allegedly received large payments, luxury real estate, and meetings with celebrities.

Constance Wang, the former chief operating officer of FTX, agreed to cooperate in Bankman-Fried’s prosecution, according to Michael Lewis in his book Going Infinite. Messages from Wang show a willingness to try to keep FTX running, even after it became obvious that funds were missing, telling Ryne Miller that “I don’t want to stop trying yet” on November 9, 2022. Wang has since joined Sino Global Capital, a fund that FTX invested in, which has since rebranded as Ryze Labs.

Claire Watanabe was romantically involved with Singh and was also an FTX senior executive working in business development. Watanabe and Singh lived in an apartment with Bankman-Fried, Wang, and Ellison and she was one of the executives who made large political donations, maximizing her donation to financial fraudster and likely Ponzi schemer George Santos.

Ramnik Arora was the former head of product for FTX. Arora was also one of the executives who made large political donations, joining Watanabe in making the largest possible donation to Santos. Arora has since founded venture capital fund Original Capital.

Sam Trabucco, the former co-CEO of Alameda Research who resigned months before the collapse, has mostly maintained a low profile. He briefly popped his head above water to write a letter in support of his close friend Salame, but other than that, he has kept mostly to himself.

Former lawyers, including Daniel Friedberg and Can Sun, have been named by various executives and lawsuits as being possibly aware of or connected to some of the criminal activities in these entities. Friedberg has been the target of a lawsuit by FTX debtors in possession who have alleged he helped pay off whistleblowers, approved loans to executives, and helped create North Dimension and North Wireless Dimension.

Friedberg has maintained that he was not aware of the issues that led to the FTX collapse, and Law360 reported that he was cooperating with the prosecution of Bankman-Fried.

Can Sun, an FTX lawyer who worked with Friedberg at Fenwick, testified that Bankman-Fried misrepresented FTX’s financials to him. Bankman-Fried supposedly asked Sun to provide “a legal justification” for why billions in customer funds were missing, and Sun responded by providing various theoretical explanations that he could have, but did not actually explain it.

Sun testified under a grant of immunity and allegedly worked with Justin Sun and Tron on the attempted acquisition of TrueUSD.

His LinkedIn states that he now works on legal and compliance for Backpack, a wallet founded by former Alameda developer Armani Ferrante.

Salame has focused some of his X ire on Backpack, alleging that “they chose a lawyer who was at the absolute core of causing an insane amount of customer funds being stolen” and wondering aloud “how many executives at Backpack are taking out inter-company loans because the lawyer advised them to do that instead of selling off their own crypto. “Hypothetical question of course.”

Read more: Ryan Salame is whitewashing his role at FTX and Alameda

Adam Yedidia, a former FTX developer and friend of Bankman-Fried, testified in Bankman-Fried’s trial that he became aware of a many-billion-dollar shortfall several months before FTX declared bankruptcy. I have testified under the protection of an immunity order.

Two executives have been sentenced to prison, two others have their sentencing scheduled, one other pleaded guilty, and many others are still looking for opportunities to salvage their careers and reputations.

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