Securities Regulation Daily Wrap Up, BLOCKCHAIN—S.D.N.Y.: CFTC resolves actions against former Alameda, FTX officials, gives credit for cooperation, (Aug 20, 2026)
Organizations Mentioned:Alameda Research LLC | FTX Trading Ltd.
The agency is not seeking restitution or civil penalties against former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison or FTX and Alameda co-founder Gary Wang.
The CFTC announced that the federal district court for the Southern District of New York entered supplemental consent orders imposing trading and registration bans against former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison and Alameda and FTX Trading co-founder Gary Wang. Ellison’s order includes a five-year trading ban and a 10-year registration ban, while Wang’s order imposes a five-year trading ban and an eight-year registration ban. The bans run from December 21, 2022, the date of the initial consent orders against Ellison and Wang.
The CFTC said that the initial and supplemental consent orders resolve its enforcement actions against Ellison and Wang.
Reduced penalties. The Commission chose not to seek restitution, disgorgement, and/or civil monetary penalties at this time. Enforcement Director David Miller said that the decision reflects the material assistance provided by Ellison and Wang in the Commission’s FTX-related investigations. That includes their assistance with parallel criminal actions against them in which they each pled guilty to several criminal charges and forfeited $11.02 billion, for which they were jointly and severally liable.
The actions relate to their role in defrauding investors in FTX Trading, the cryptocurrency exchange co-founded by Wang and Sam Bankman-Fried, who is currently serving a 25-year sentence in federal prison. Both Ellison and Wang testified for the prosecution during Bankman-Fried’s trial.
Initial orders. The court’s initial consent order against Ellison found her liable on two fraud counts of the CFTC’s amended complaint. She was charged with directing Alameda to use billions of dollars of FTX funds, including customer funds, to trade on other digital asset exchanges and to fund a variety of high-risk digital asset industry investments. She also made deceptive public statements in her capacity as Alameda’s CEO, including statements about the supposed separation between the operations of Alameda and FTX, in order to facilitate the fraudulent scheme.
The initial consent order against Wang found him liable for a single fraud charge. He created features in the code underlying the FTX trading platform that allowed Alameda to maintain an unlimited line of credit on FTX, and gave Alameda an unfair advantage when transacting on the platform. The code and structural exceptions allowed Alameda to secretly siphon FTX customer assets from the FTX platform.
Companies: Alameda Research LLC; FTX Trading Ltd.
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