Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research, was sentenced to 24 months in prison and must pay $11 billion for her role in the collapse of FTX.

In December 2022, Ellison pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud and five counts of conspiracy as part of a cooperation agreement with the government. Prosecutors had recommended a lenient sentence due to Ellison’s “extraordinary” and “very timely” cooperation. Her own lawyers did not ask for a prison sentence, nor did the federal parole board.

“I have seen many cooperators in 30 years. But I have never seen anyone like Ms. Ellison,” Judge Lewis Kaplan said during the verdict, according to Bloomberg. Unlike Sam Bankman-Fried, there were no obvious contradictions in her testimony, which was “very incriminating for herself.”

Nevertheless, she is responsible for her role in the fraud, Kaplan said.

Ellison was the main witness in the trial of FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried, where she testified for three days. In a statement from prosecutors before Ellison’s sentencing, they said the speed with which she came clean allowed them to quickly charge her ex-boyfriend Bankman-Fried “to ensure he did not flee the Bahamas or further obstruct the government’s investigation.” The document also noted that Ellison was completely and immediately communicative in her meetings with the government.

According to a statement written by Ray that the defense filed, Ellison also promptly helped John J. Ray, the new CEO tasked with cleaning up the FTX mess, locate and recover customer assets. Her “early cooperation” was “valuable” in recovering the debtors’ assets, he wrote. Ellison is working on a deal in which she will hand over “substantially all of her remaining assets after satisfying her forfeiture obligations” to the FTX debtors.

Unlike Bankman-Fried, Ellison appears to genuinely regret her role in the fraud. We know this not only because of her cooperation agreement, but also because she confessed her actions and apologized to her co-workers in a meeting she was unaware was being recorded. This recorded confession not only sealed Bankman-Fried’s fate, but also demonstrated her remorse.

In addition to Ellison’s honesty, there were other mitigating circumstances. She was the only co-conspirator who did not own shares in Alameda or FTX, and “the government found no evidence that Ellison enjoyed the wealth created by the fraud,” prosecutors wrote.

Ellison has already experienced significant impact. Her diaries have been published in the pages of The New York Timesher psychiatrist Michael Lewis gave an interview about her for his book Going into infinityand she has been ridiculed in shockingly misogynistic language by large parts of the crypto community she was once a part of. According to documents filed by her lawyers, she has been unable to find paid work and is afraid to appear in public. This account was confirmed by prosecutors, who wrote, “The government cannot think of any other cooperating witness in recent history who has received a greater level of attention and harassment.”