Alameda’s CEO Caroline Ellison was terminated recently for allegedly defrauding crypto investors. 

In November 2022, the Wall Street Journal published an article quoting an unnamed source who claimed that Alameda Research owed cryptocurrency exchange FTX $10 billion. According to the source, FTX loaned the trading company money using FTX client cash. Following the bankruptcy filings by FTX and Alameda, Ellison’s employment was terminated.

Also Read: FTX crypto exchange: Crash and bankruptcy explained

Who is Caroline Ellison?

Born in 1994, Caroline Ellison is an American business executive. She is the former CEO of Alameda Research, a quantitative trading firm which was founded by billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried. 

Ellison was raised in the outskirts of Boston. She is the daughter of Sara Fisher Ellison, an economist at MIT, and Glenn Ellison, the Gregory K. Palm (1970) Professor of Economics at MIT who coached her math team when she was in middle school.

Also Read: Who is Sam Bankman-Fried?

Ellison earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Stanford University in 2016. She achieved rankings in the top 500 students in the 2013, 2014, and 2015 Putnam Competitions while attending Stanford.

Ellison met Sam Bankman-Fried while working for Jane Street, a quantitative trading firm.  She spent 19 months as a junior trader at Jane Street.

In March 2018, Ellison began working at Alameda Research. In October 2021, she and Sam Trabucco shared the role of co-CEO. In August 2022, she took over as Alameda Research’s sole CEO when Trabucco resigned.

Als Read: Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried arrested in Bahamas

After CoinDesk expressed concerns about Alameda Research’s balance sheet and connection to FTX on November 6, 2022, Ellison responded by claiming that the information had only covered a portion of the company’s holdings and that it had more than $10 billion in other assets.

According to unnamed sources cited by the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, Ellison, in a video meeting with staff on November 9, 2022, admitted that FTX had used customer funds to assist Alameda in paying its debts and that she, Bankman-Fried, and two other FTX executives, Nishad Singh and Gary Wang, were aware of the circumstances.

Also Read: Sam Bankman-Fried: Age, drop in net worth, relationship, political donations

In light of the ongoing law enforcement inquiries into the collapse of their crypto empire, Ellison and FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried have separately hired formidable criminal defence attorneys who specialise on white-collar crimes.