United States Attorney Damian Williams announced in a message that FTX co-founder Gary Wang and former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison acknowledged guilt to the criminal charges in the Southern District of New York, raised against them with regard to the collapse of the FTX empire.
Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged the two for partnering in a scheme "to defraud equity investors in FTX." In the complaint, the SEC stated that in the period between 2019 and 2022, "Ellison, at the direction of [ex-FTX CEO Samuel] Bankman-Fried, furthered the scheme by manipulating the price of FTT, an FTX-issued exchange crypto security token, by purchasing large quantities on the open market to prop up its price. FTT served as collateral for undisclosed loans by FTX of its customers' assets to Alameda."
Wang’s attorney revealed in a statement that "Gary has accepted responsibility for his actions and takes seriously his obligations as a cooperating witness."
