SEC confirms years-long director bans for former Alameda, FTX executives

cointelegraphPublished on 2025-12-19Last updated on 2025-12-19

Abstract

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has obtained final consent judgments against former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison and former FTX executives Gary Wang and Nishad Singh. They are barred from holding company leadership roles for eight to 10 years due to their involvement in misusing FTX investor funds from 2019 to 2022. Ellison received a 10-year ban, while Wang and Singh each accepted eight-year bans. All three are also subject to five-year conduct-based injunctions. The SEC alleged that, with Ellison's knowledge, FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried and the other executives exempted Alameda from risk measures and provided it with an unlimited line of credit using FTX customer funds. Ellison, who testified against Bankman-Fried, was sentenced to two years in prison and is scheduled for early release on February 20. Wang and Singh also cooperated with authorities and received time-served sentences. Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years for his central role in the exchange’s collapse.

Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison and former FTX executives Gary Wang and Nishad Singh will be barred from assuming company leadership roles for eight to 10 years following a court judgment.

In a Friday notice, the US Securities and Exchange Commission said that it had obtained final consent judgments against Ellison, Wang and Singh for their roles in the misuse of investor funds at FTX from 2019 to 2022.

The former Alameda CEO consented to a 10-year officer-and-director bar, while Wang and Singh consented to eight-year officer-and-director bars each. All three are also subject to five-year ”conduct-based injunctions,” according to the SEC.

“In reality, as alleged in the complaints, [Sam] Bankman-Fried, Wang, and Singh, with Ellison’s knowledge and consent, had exempted Alameda from the risk mitigation measures and provided Alameda with a virtually unlimited ‘line of credit’ funded by FTX’s customers,” said the SEC. “The complaints also alleged that Wang and Singh created FTX’s software code that allowed FTX customer funds to be diverted to Alameda, and that Ellison used misappropriated FTX customer funds for Alameda’s trading activity.”

Former FTX CEO Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried received a 25-year sentence for his role in the exchange’s collapse. He is awaiting the results of an appeal in the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, where a hearing was held on Nov. 4.

Related: Caroline Ellison blames Sam Bankman-Fried for misuse of FTX user funds at trial

Ellison was sentenced to two years as part of a plea deal in which she testified against Bankman-Fried. Wang and Singh testified against SBF at his criminal trial and were sentenced to time served in 2024.

Ellison will soon be released from custody

The former Alameda CEO, who largely stayed out of the public spotlight between FTX’s collapse and her testimony at SBF’s trial in October 2023, was recently transferred from prison to a Residential Reentry Management field office in New York City.

According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, she is scheduled to be released on Feb. 20, about nine months before the end of her two-year sentence. The timing suggested she may have been eligible for good-conduct credits to reduce her prison time.

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