Former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison leaves Danbury Prison after serving only 11 months due to cooperation and good behavior. She has entered the community supervision phase. (Background: Three Arrows Capital (3AC) court summons SBF and other FTX executives: accused of illegal liquidation of $1.5 billion positions)

Table of Contents

• Why was the sentence reduced?
• Sharp contrast with SBF’s fate
• SBF’s legal team appeals for a retrial
• Prosecutor’s stance and difficulty of overturning the case

Caroline Ellison, who played a key role in the FTX group and was the former CEO of Alameda Research, quietly left the FCI Danbury in Connecticut on October 16, 2025, and transitioned into the “community supervision” system.

This means she is no longer behind bars but is under the supervision of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), either in a transitional rehabilitation center or under house arrest. Ellison was originally sentenced to 24 months, but she actually spent about 11 months in custody; the latest record on the BOP website shows her final release date has been updated to February 20, 2026, nearly 9 months earlier than initially expected.

Why was the sentence shortened?

On September 24, 2024, the Southern District of New York Court sentenced Ellison to 2 years in prison, citing “extraordinary cooperation”; she reported to Danbury Prison on November 7 of the same year.

Business Insider reports that her transfer approval in October 2025 was partly due to her providing key testimony in the Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) trial, which prosecutors considered as “tarnished witness” evidence. Additionally, under the First Step Act and established BOP procedures, inmates who are low-risk, non-violent, and have completed rehabilitation programs can shorten their sentences through “good behavior credits” and related programs.

These deductions collectively allowed her to enter community supervision early.

Sharp contrast with SBF’s fate

Although she has left behind the walls, Ellison still must adhere to rules such as curfews, regular check-ins, and random drug testing, with violations potentially leading to immediate return to prison. In contrast, FTX founder SBF was sentenced to 25 years on March 28, 2024, for major fraud charges, highlighting a stark difference in their destinies.

Further reading: SBF’s sentence shortened to 2044, three major reasons for reduction revealed, ex-girlfriend Caroline expected to be released mid-next year

SBF’s legal team appeals for a retrial

Earlier reports indicated that SBF’s lawyers submitted a 15-page appeal to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in early November, requesting the court overturn the previous verdict and conduct a new trial.

SBF’s defense argued that Judge Lewis Kaplan limited a large amount of favorable financial data, preventing the jury from seeing the true asset situation of FTX. At the end of October, SBF also released a document titled “FTX: Where Did the Money Go?” on X platform, listing the following statement, claiming that customer withdrawal demands could have been fully met:

“FTX and Alameda Research held approximately $25 billion in assets and $16 billion in equity, which could fully cover the $8 billion withdrawal demand. The platform was never insolvent.”

The legal team pointed out that if the relevant forms and on-chain wallet addresses had been fully presented at the time, the jury’s understanding of the case might have been entirely different. They also questioned the judge for holding an unusual pre-trial preview hearing and restricting the defense’s access to internal emails and transaction records.

Additionally, SBF’s appeal strongly criticized FTX’s bankruptcy management team. His criticism targeted legal counsel Sullivan & Cromwell and current CEO John Ray III, claiming they charged nearly one billion dollars in consulting fees and undervalued FTX’s high-quality assets, harming the interests of customers and creditors.

Prosecutor’s stance and difficulty of overturning the case

Can SBF overturn his conviction? It is generally considered quite difficult.

First, from the prosecutor’s perspective, authorities previously pointed out that SBF not only misappropriated customer funds to subsidize his hedge fund but also concealed the true asset situation in regulatory filings. Second, court records show that former FTX COO Gary Wang and former CEO Caroline Ellison testified that SBF was fully aware of his unauthorized use of customer funds.

Finally, the appellate court’s role is not to reopen factual investigations but to review whether legal errors occurred. Therefore, legal scholars generally believe that the defense must prove that the initial trial process was “extremely unfair,” otherwise the threshold for overturning the verdict will be quite high.

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