Former Alameda Research Head Caroline Ellison to Be Released on January 28

Caroline Ellison to be released from custody on January 28 after a year.

Caroline Ellison, the former head of Alameda Research, will be released from custody on January 28, after spending about a year in detention.

According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, she is currently in a halfway house in New York. Such facilities are used to transition inmates before their final release, helping them find employment and prepare for life outside.

In October 2025, Ellison was transferred to the center from a federal prison in Connecticut. She began serving her two-year sentence there in November 2024.

Ellison led Alameda Research and was in a relationship with FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. The exchange’s collapse occurred in November 2022 due to liquidity issues and misappropriation of funds.

In December 2022, Ellison pleaded guilty to seven charges, including fraud and conspiracy. She entered a plea deal and testified against Bankman-Fried. In court, the former Alameda head confirmed she acted on his instructions, and the trading firm had unlimited access to FTX client funds.

Bankman-Fried himself was sentenced to 25 years in prison in March 2025, with an obligation to repay $11 billion in losses. In January of this year, U.S. President Donald Trump ruled out the possibility of a pardon for the FTX founder.

Other top FTX executives, Gary Wang and Nishad Singh, also cooperated with authorities and avoided prison time. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission seeks to bar all three, including Ellison, from holding executive positions in public companies.

Back in November 2025, FTX representatives withdrew a petition to restrict payments for users from 49 countries, including Russia and Ukraine.