Caroline Ellison, who testified in the crypto fraud trial of her ex-boyfriend and FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, was sentenced to two years in prison on Tuesday for her role in the case, New York prosecutors told AFP.

Ellison, the former CEO of cryptocurrency company Alameda Research, received a significantly lighter sentence than the maximum 110-year sentence she faced after pleading guilty to seven counts, including fraud.

Her defense attorney had argued against a prison sentence. Prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said they did not ask Judge Lewis Kaplan to impose a specific sentence, but merely suggested that he consider her past cooperation.

Ellison served as a key witness in the trial of cryptocurrency superstar Bankman-Fried – known by his initials “SBF” – who was sentenced to 25 years in prison in March in one of the largest financial fraud cases in history.

He is serving his sentence in prison and has appealed the verdict.

During her testimony in court, Ellison accused Bankman-Fried of using client funds to advance his riskier projects. He countered by trying to pin the blame on Ellison, calling her a poor manager.

Bankman-Fried was already a billionaire at the age of 30 and was considered the figurehead of the cryptocurrency boom.

Within a few months, he had turned his small start-up FTX, founded in 2019, into the second largest cryptocurrency trading platform in the world.

However, as the trial against Bankman-Fried revealed, the company had used the assets invested in FTX to conduct riskier transactions, acquire real estate and make political donations through its sister company Alameda Research.

FTX imploded in November 2022 and had over $8 billion in debt at the time the company filed for bankruptcy.

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