Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang, the former FTX insiders whose testimony helped convict Sam Bankman-Fried, have resolved their final regulatory case with the US government, accepting trading and registration bans but avoiding any new financial penalties.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced Wednesday that a federal court in Manhattan entered supplemental consent orders against the two former executives. Ellison, who ran the trading firm Alameda Research, received a five-year trading ban and a 10-year prohibition on registering with the CFTC. Wang, the FTX co-founder who built the exchange's code, got the same five-year trading ban plus an eight-year registration bar.
Both bans are retroactive to December 2022, when the court first found them liable for fraud. That means Ellison can resume trading in late 2027, while her registration prohibition runs through 2032. Wang's registration bar ends in 2030.
The regulator explicitly declined to pursue restitution, disgorgement, or civil monetary penalties, citing two factors: the pair's extensive cooperation with investigators, and the fact that they already owe an $11.02 billion forfeiture from their criminal cases.
"Today's resolution further underscores the high value this Division places on robust cooperation," CFTC Enforcement Director David Miller said in a statement. "Ellison and Wang were senior executives who committed fraud at Alameda and FTX for which they were found liable. Their sanctions, however, reflect their material assistance in the Commission's FTX-related investigations."
The CFTC first sued Bankman-Fried, FTX, and Alameda in December 2022, weeks after the exchange collapsed into bankruptcy. The agency accused them of misusing more than $8 billion in FTX customer deposits, with regulators saying Wang wrote the code that allowed Alameda to quietly siphon those funds. The corporate entities settled with the CFTC for $12.7 billion in 2024.
The Securities and Exchange Commission took a similar approach last December, imposing long-term leadership bans on Ellison and Wang without new fines. The sanctions mirrored the CFTC's outcome: Ellison received a 10-year officer-and-director bar, and Wang got eight years.
Cooperation as the Deciding Factor
The contrast between Ellison and Wang's outcomes and that of Bankman-Fried is stark. Ellison served just 14 months of a two-year sentence, leaving prison in January. Wang never spent time behind bars — US District Judge Lewis Kaplan sentenced him to time served in November 2024, explicitly crediting his cooperation.
"I've never seen anything quite like what happened here. You're entitled to a lot of credit," Kaplan told Wang at his sentencing.
Bankman-Fried, by contrast, fought the charges and is now serving a 25-year prison sentence. An appeals court upheld his conviction in June, and the mandate issued on August 4 made the ruling final. His remaining options are limited to a Supreme Court petition or a presidential pardon — and bipartisan senators have already introduced a resolution opposing any clemency.
In April, the CFTC announced that Nishad Singh, FTX's former engineering chief, would need to return $3.7 million in illegal profits and face a temporary registration and trading ban, underscoring the agency's willingness to calibrate penalties based on cooperation levels.
Final Chapter for FTX
The settlement effectively closes the regulatory chapter for the two insiders who flipped on Bankman-Fried. The FTX bankruptcy estate is nearly wound down, with the remaining litigation reduced to a single claim dispute. For Ellison and Wang, the path forward is clear: they can resume trading within the next several years, their financial exposure to regulators capped at the forfeiture already ordered in their criminal cases.
The broader FTX saga, which began with the exchange's November 2022 collapse and revealed what prosecutors described as a multi-year fraud taking billions from customers, investors, and lenders, is now approaching its final administrative stages. The only significant unresolved question is whether Bankman-Fried will serve his full 25-year term.
