Federal authorities charged Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research, and Zixiao (Gary) Wang, the former Chief Technology Officer of FTX Trading Ltd. (FTX), with defrauding crypto trading platform investors on Wednesday.
In a video message, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said Wang and Ellison had pled guilty to the charges and promised to cooperate with authorities. He stated that the creator of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, is presently in FBI custody and on his way to the United States.
Separately, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that Ellison and Gary Wang have been charged for their roles in a multiyear plan to mislead FTX equity investors.
Wang and Ellison were active participants in a scheme to deceive investors, the SEC said, alleging that Wang created FTX’s software code that allowed Alameda to divert FTX customer funds, and Ellison used misappropriated FTX customer funds for Alameda’s trading activity.
“Gary has accepted responsibility for his actions and takes seriously his obligations as a cooperating witness,” Ilan Graff, a lawyer for Wang, said in a statement.
An attorney for Ellison did not respond immediately to the request for comment.
Williams also gave a stark warning in the video: “If you participated in misconduct at FTX or Alameda, now is the time to get ahead of it. We are moving quickly and our patience is not eternal.”