SEC upholds multi-year director ban for former Alameda and FTX executives

Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison and former FTX executives Gary Wang and Nishad Singh will be barred from holding senior roles at the company for eight to 10 years following a court ruling.

In a notice released Friday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said that he had obtained final consent judgments against Ellison, Wang and Singh for their roles in the misuse of investor funds at FTX from 2019 to 2022.

The former Alameda CEO agreed to a 10-year officer and director ban, while Wang and Singh each agreed to an eight-year officer and director ban. All three are also subject to five-year “conduct-based injunctions,” according to the SEC.

“In reality, as the complaints allege, [Sam] Bankman-Fried, Wang and Singh, with Ellison’s knowledge and consent, exempted Alameda from risk mitigation measures and provided Alameda with a virtually unlimited ‘line of credit’ funded by FTX customers,” the SEC said. “The complaints also alleged that Wang and Singh created FTX software code that allowed FTX customer funds to be diverted to Alameda, and that Ellison used the diverted FTX customer funds for commercial activity in Alameda.”

Former FTX CEO Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison for his role in the stock market collapse. He is awaiting the results of an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, where a hearing was held on November 4.

Related: Caroline Ellison accuses Sam Bankman-Fried of misusing FTX user funds in trial

Ellison was sentenced to two years as part of a plea deal in which she testified against Bankman-Fried. Wang and Singh testified against SBF during his criminal trial and were sentenced to time served in 2024.