How Sam Bankman-Fried’s ex-girlfriend helped topple the crypto king
Caroline Ellison and Sam Bankman-Fried were similar in many ways.
Both were the children of academics, both were hailed as math geniuses, and both embraced “effective altruism” – a philosophy that involves making large sums of money to fund philanthropic pursuits that benefit society to the greatest extent possible.
On paper, it seemed like a match made in heaven.
They met on Wall Street in 2015 and became lovers and colleagues – building FTX, a cryptocurrency empire once revered and promoted by the stars.
But eight years on, Ellison played a key role in bringing down her former beau as she became the star witness in his multi-billion-dollar fraud trial and sentencing that landed him 25 years in prison.
On Thursday, 28 March, Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 300 months in prison and forced to forfeit $11.2bn based on
