The FTX Insiders Who Turned on SBF Just Got Their Final Deal

Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang are finally done with US regulators. The FTX insiders who helped convict Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) settled their last fraud case on Wednesday. They took trading bans but no new fines.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said a New York federal court entered the supplemental consent orders. The case opened weeks after FTX collapsed in November 2022.

.@CFTC Resolves Actions Against Former Alameda CEO, and Alameda and FTX Co-Founder: https://t.co/csj2ODxJ5T

— CFTC (@CFTC) August 19, 2026

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Why the CFTC Went Easy on the FTX Insiders

The numbers tell the story. Ellison, who ran trading firm Alameda Research, gets a five-year trading ban and a 10-year registration ban. Wang, the co-founder who built FTX’s code, gets the same trading ban plus an eight-year registration bar.

Both bans run from December 2022, when the court first found them liable for fraud. So Ellison can trade again in late 2027. Wang’s registration bar ends in 2030, hers in 2032.

The CFTC also walked away from restitution, disgorgement, and civil fines. It gave two reasons. The pair cooperated extensively, and they already owe an $11.02 billion forfeiture from their criminal cases.

“Today’s resolution further underscores the high value this Division places on robust cooperation. Ellison and Wang were senior executives who committed fraud at Alameda and FTX for which they were found liable. Their sanctions, however, reflect their material assistance in the Commission’s FTX-related investigations,” CFTC Director of Enforcement David I. Miller said in the agency’s announcement.

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The agency first sued SBF, FTX, and Alameda in December 2022. It accused them of misusing more than $8 billion in FTX customer deposits. Regulators said Wang wrote the code that let Alameda quietly drain those funds. The companies paid instead, settling with the CFTC for $12.7 billion in 2024.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) took the same path last December, imposing long-term leadership bans without new fines. The mirror is exact. Ellison got 10 years there too, and Wang got eight.

SBF Watches From Prison as His Former Allies Move On

Cooperation was the trade of their lives. Ellison served just 14 months of a two-year sentence. She left prison in January.

Wang never saw a cell. A judge sentenced him to time served in November 2024, citing his help.

“I’ve never seen anything quite like what happened here. You’re entitled to a lot of credit,” US District Judge Lewis Kaplan told Wang at his sentencing.

SBF fought instead, and it cost him. He is serving 25 years. An appeals court upheld his conviction in June, and the appeal mandate issued on August 4 made it final.

Only two paths remain for him. He can petition the Supreme Court or hope for a presidential pardon. Meanwhile, bipartisan senators have already introduced a resolution opposing any clemency.

The FTX story is nearly closed. The estate’s wind-down is almost done, with the FTX bankruptcy fight reduced to one final claim dispute.

The insiders who flipped have their futures back. The question left is whether the man they flipped on serves all 25 years.