FTX fraudster Caroline Ellison sentenced to 2 years in prison, ordered to forfeit $11 billion

vegeta@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 208 points –
FTX fraudster Caroline Ellison sentenced to 2 years in prison, ordered to forfeit $11 billion
cnbc.com
36

sell some loosies on a bronx street corner, get choked to death by the cops, steal 11 billion, get two years in minimum security, sure, makes sense

She was given extreme leniency because she was the main cooperator with police. There would be no FTX case wihout her. She seemed relieved when it all got cracked open and she seemed remorseful in her interviews and testimonies. So she at least demonstrated remorse enough to convince the police and the court. Whether it's genuine remorse or alligator tears doesn't matter as much as her contribution to getting the bigger fish caught, though. Rewarding cooperators an essential piece of the justice machine.

But even SBF "only" got 25 years, which is still a Hell of a lot lighter than "choked to death by the cops."

Nobody thinks that Floyd deserved to get killed, doesn't mean we need to start also killing random other people

Nobody thinks that Floyd deserved to get killed

I know my memory is getting bad but... Really?

Everyone's memory is getting bad because the OP was talking about Eric Garner who was murdered by police for selling loose cigarettes out of a pack.

2 years for helping steal $11B. Tell me again that there isn't 2 justice systems.

Firstly, fuck this person and everyone else involved.

Secondly, she was a supportive witness that likely helped to get other convictions. She might be the reason that any money is recovered.

Thirdly, if the sentence for a crime gets too high, murdering the people who can rat you out becomes the best strategy. Dead people don't take the stand. It's why certain awful crimes, like assaulting children, seem to have too light of a sentence.

It wouldn't seem like too light of a sentence if other relatively minor crimes didn't put poor people in prison for way longer. The solution is to reduce sentences for minor, especially victimless crimes to be in line with these, not the other way around.

That third paragraph is total bullshit, did you read it properly? it's two years.. Murder in the US is most likely a life sentence..

I'm sure you have statistics to back up your third point, and wouldn't make such an extraordinary claim without the evidence to back it up... Care to provide?

Not sure why you're being down voted, it's a fair question, and I don't have a specific study to link to.

I just have anecdotes from working with criminals, and game theory.

If something will add X% to your time in prison, but has a Y% chance of preventing you from being convicted in the first place, there are numbers where it makes sense to risk it.
Granted, it's much more likely in a single-victim sex-crime scenario than a fraud case that leaves behind kilometer-long paper trails

I'm no expert, but I would think that you are massively oversimplifying the situation there...

She took a plea bargain. Without her as a witness, SBF probably doesn't get convicted of nearly as many charges. If you read the article, there was a distinct possibility that she wouldn't do any jail time at all. The judge was relatively harsh with the 2 year sentence in this case.

So this sentencing has essentially nothing to do with her wealth.

Yes, people don't realize that so much of what was used to charge the others came from her. She was the CEO and is smart. She knew everything and gave it all up. This all would have had a very different outcome without her contribution. Whether it's genuine remorse or pure self-preservation doesn't matter. Her contribution was the center tent pole of it all.

Rawr bad person me no like bad person 5 billion years jail

Man they fucking did her dirty in the courtroom sketch. I mean look at SBF's picture. I MEAN JUST LOOK AT IT!!

For those that haven't seen:

"I want you to invest with me as hard as you can."

"This lettuce is too spicy for me D:"

An article about SBF's courtroom sketch...that does not include a courtroom sketch of him. Or is that dude in the sketch supposed to be him?

I see multiple courtroom sketches of him in the article, but the fake one is linked on X

Those are him?? Oy. He's not much of a looker but he doesn't look like a serial killer in real life like he does in those sketches.

And oddly enough, the sketch of Ms Ellison that she is more proud of looks much worse than the one in the article for this post.

The second of the 3 'real' sketches looks like he is wearing a human face mask over his face in true Nic Cage fashion.

I mean... it's not like her sketch is too far off.... it's him they botched

"β€œIt was very annoying,” says Ms Rosenberg. β€œI had 10 minutes to do that and nobody saw the last ones that I did were much better.” Jane Rosenberg was much happier with this sketch of Caroline Ellison which attracted far less attention than one she had 10 minutes to draw.

I have a solution. Legalize murdering Billionaires.

Either they spend money on private security that might betray them, or they give away enough to drop below a billion.