Dec 22 (Reuters) – FTX founder and former Chief Government Sam Bankman-Fried, who faces U.S. fraud costs over the collapse of FTX, ran his crypto empire with plenty of associates.
Two of these are cooperating with federal prosecutors.
Here is a who's who of one-time prime officers at Bankman-Fried's crypto empire:
CAROLINE ELLISON
Caroline Ellison, former CEO of Alameda Analysis, pleaded responsible to defrauding traders in FTX and is cooperating with investigators, in response to a prosecutors' assertion on Wednesday.
Ellison, 28, grew up in Massachusetts, the place each of her dad and mom are economics professors on the Massachusetts Institute of Expertise.
She started her profession at quantitative buying and selling agency Jane Avenue after graduating from Stanford College with a level in arithmetic in 2016, she stated on a now-offline FTX podcast from July 2020. A couple of 12 months and a half into that function, Ellison met Bankman-Fried for espresso whereas visiting the Bay Space, the place he first advised her about Alameda Analysis, in response to the podcast.
She joined the agency as a dealer in 2018 and have become co-CEO with Sam Trabucco in October 2021, later changing into the corporate's sole CEO.
In a Dec. 1 Twitter Areas occasion, Bankman-Fried acknowledged that he and Ellison had “been collectively for some time,” however declined to provide extra particulars.
Ellison has stated she believes in efficient altruism, a philanthropic motion standard amongst Silicon Valley executives.
Ellison didn't reply to cellphone calls or an emailed request for remark.
GARY WANG
Gary Wang co-founded FTX and Alameda Analysis with Bankman-Fried, and served as FTX's chief know-how officer. He and Bankman-Fried met at a math camp in highschool and have become school roommates, Bankman-Fried wrote in a now-unavailable FTX weblog.
Wang labored as a software program engineer at Google earlier than co-founding FTX and Alameda, in response to an archived webpage for the FTX Future Fund, the corporate's charitable effort.
In April, Forbes estimated his internet price at $5.9 billion.
“Gary has accepted duty for his actions and takes severely his obligations as a cooperating witness,” Ilan Graff, a lawyer for Wang, stated in an announcement on Wednesday. Graff declined to remark additional on Thursday.
NISHAD SINGH
Nishad Singh was a greatest buddy of Bankman-Fried's brother in highschool, Bankman-Fried wrote within the deleted weblog publish. After working for a interval at Alameda Analysis, Singh grew to become FTX's director of engineering in 2019, in response to CNBC.
Singh contributed greater than $8 million to political campaigns within the 2022 election cycle, all to Democrats, in response to OpenSecrets.
He didn't reply to an emailed request for remark.
SAM TRABUCCO
Sam Trabucco, the previous co-CEO of Alameda Analysis who stepped down in August however remained as an advisor, met Bankman-Fried in 2010 at a five-week math camp at Mount Holyoke Faculty, according to Insider.
Trabucco graduated from MIT in 2015 with a level in math and laptop science, in response to an web archive of Alameda's web site. Earlier than becoming a member of Alameda, he labored as a dealer at Susquehanna Worldwide Group's bond ETF desk.
Trabucco didn't reply to an e mail or a Twitter message requesting remark.
DAN FRIEDBERG
Dan Friedberg, former chief regulatory officer at FTX, was the crypto alternate's “authorized advisor from the very starting,” Bankman-Fried wrote within the deleted weblog publish.
Friedberg is a lawyer who additionally served because the authorized counsel for each FTX and Alameda at instances.
He didn't reply to an emailed request for remark.
RYAN SALAME
Ryan Salame, the co-CEO of FTX's Bahamian subsidiary, labored for Ernst & Younger and Circle Web Monetary earlier than becoming a member of FTX Digital Markets in 2021, in accordance to a profile on the College of Massachusetts Amherst's web site, the place he established a scholarship fund.
Salame was one of many prime political donors within the 2022 election cycle donating greater than $23 million to Republican campaigns, in response to OpenSecrets.
Days earlier than FTX filed for chapter and Bankman-Fried stepped down as CEO, Salame knowledgeable the Securities Fee of the Bahamas that consumer property held at FTX Digital Markets could have been transferred to Alameda, in response to a court docket submitting Wednesday by the company.
Salame didn't reply to a cellphone name or a LinkedIn message requesting remark.
Reporting by Hannah Lang in Washington and John McCrank in New York; further reporting by Angus Berwick in London; modifying by Megan Davies and Richard Chang
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