Caroline Ellison, the on-again-off-again girlfriend of convicted fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried who headed his crypto hedge fund Alameda Research before testifying against him, has been quietly moved out of federal prison after serving about 11 months of her two-year sentence, according to Business Insider.
Ellison, 31, was transferred on Oct. 16 from the low-security Danbury Federal Correctional Institution in Connecticut to community confinement, a Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesperson told Business Insider.
Ellison, who wrote explicit, now-deleted blog posts about polyamory, sexual fantasies and her views on power and finance that resurfaced in the days following the collapse of FTX and Alameda, remains in federal custody.
She is now either remanded to home confinement or living in a halfway house, BOP spokesperson Randilee Giamusso said. A BOP rep confirmed Ellison’s transfer in an emailed statement to The Post.
The agency declined to provide details, citing privacy and security concerns.
Ellison’s attorney declined to comment.
Online prison records list Ellison’s projected release date as Feb. 20, 2026 — nearly nine months earlier than her original sentence would suggest.
Ellison reported to Danbury in early November 2024 after being sentenced to two years in prison for her role in the sprawling multibillion-dollar fraud that brought down Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire.
She pleaded guilty in December 2022 to seven criminal counts, including fraud and conspiracy, for her role in an $11 billion scheme that siphoned customer funds from the FTX cryptocurrency exchange to prop up Alameda Research.
Ellison was accused of conspiring to help Bankman-Fried orchestrate the secret transfer of billions of dollars in FTX customer money to Alameda, which then used the funds to cover mounting losses and make risky bets.
Ellison also admitted to creating false balance sheets that were shown to lenders to conceal Alameda’s true financial condition.
Her cooperation made her the government’s most important witness at Bankman-Fried’s trial.
At Ellison’s sentencing hearing in September 2024, US District Judge Lewis Kaplan praised her “substantial” cooperation with prosecutors but said the seriousness of the crimes required prison time.
Ellison’s lawyers had urged Kaplan to spare her incarceration altogether, arguing that her cooperation was extraordinary and essential to the case.
Kaplan rejected that request, calling it a “literal get-out-of-jail-free card.”
The judge ultimately imposed a two-year prison sentence — far below what she could have faced without cooperation, but still a custodial term.
Ellison’s move to community confinement comes as other cooperating FTX insiders have already avoided additional prison time.
Gary Wang, FTX’s co-founder and chief technology officer, and Nishad Singh, the company’s former head of engineering, both pleaded guilty and cooperated extensively with the government.
Each was sentenced to time served.
Ryan Salame, a former FTX executive who did not cooperate, received a 7.5-year prison sentence.
In March of last year, Bankman-Fried was sentenced by Kaplan to 25 years in prison after being found guilty on all counts.
The disgraced FTX founder is currently incarcerated at a low-security federal prison in San Pedro, Calif., while he appeals his conviction and sentence.
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