What's next for Sam Bankman-Fried's inner circle after guilty verdict? ... trends now
Sam Bankman-Fried's inner circle who helped send down the disgraced crypto king are likely to face 'relatively short' sentences in a minimum security prison if they are jailed, a convicted fraudster has revealed.
Disgraced FTX founder SBF was found guilty of embezzling $10 billion of his clients' money in what the prosecutor said was 'one of the biggest financial frauds in American history' on Thursday night and faces up to 115 years in jail.
Ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison, FTX co-founder Gary Wang and engineering chief Nishad Singh all took to the stand against the former FTX boss and ultimately helped secure his conviction.
The star witnesses testified that Bankman-Fried directed them to commit fraud to help steal billions of dollars of customers' money to plug gaps in the flailing FTX trading platform.
Their testimony came after they themselves admitted to a string of financial crimes in exchange for a plea deal.
Now former fraudster Justin Paperny has revealed the group are likely to enjoy lenient sentences thanks to their co-operation.
Sam Bankman-Fried's inner circle, including Caroline Ellison (pictured) will face 'relatively short' sentences thanks to their testimony against the failed crypto king, according to a convicted fraudster
Former fraudster Justin Paperny said Ellison, along with Gary Wang (left) and Nishad Singh (right) would likely spend any prison term in a minimum security camp without other violent offenders
Paperny was a UBS Group AG broker who previously served 18 months for fraud in 2008.
He told Bloomberg he believed the trio's sentences would be relatively short and spent at minimum security prison camps with no violent offenders.
The US only has seven such standalone federal prison camps: FPC Alderson, FPC Bryan, FPC Duluth, PC Montgomery, FCI Morgantown Camp, FPC Pensacola and FPC Yankton.
The camps are segregated by gender and house 'nonviolent offenders who do not have a significant history of institutional disciplinary violations or escape', according to prison consultants Zoukis.
Inmates in FPCs must also have less than ten years remaining on their sentence and are primarily for 'white collar inmates'.
Ellison, who was the former CEO of FTX's sister's company Alameda Research, previously pleaded guilty to seven counts of fraud and money laundering charges.
If jailed, she could follow in the footsteps of fellow white-collar criminal Martha Stewart and be housed at women-only FPC Alderson, nicknamed 'Camp Cupcake'. FPC Bryan is the only other standalone women's federal prison camp.
