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U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a video statement that
both Wang and Ellison have pleaded guilty to the charges and
have agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. He said that Sam
Bankman-Fried, founder of FTX, is now in FBI custody and is on
his way to the United States.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said in a
separate statement that it has also charged Ellison and Gary
Wang for their roles in a multiyear scheme to defraud equity
investors of FTX.
Ellison and Wang were active participants in a scheme to deceive
investors, the SEC said, alleging that Wang created FTX’s
software code that allowed Alameda to divert FTX customer funds,
and Ellison used misappropriated FTX customer funds for
Alameda’s trading activity.
“Gary has accepted responsibility for his actions and takes
seriously his obligations as a cooperating witness,” Ilan Graff,
a lawyer for Wang, said in a statement.
An attorney for Ellison did not respond immediately to request
for comment.
Williams also gave a stark warning in the video: "If you
participated in misconduct at FTX or Alameda, now is the time to
get ahead of it. We are moving quickly and our patience is not
eternal."
(Reporting by Chris Prentice and Luc Cohen; Editing by Megan
Davies & Shri Navaratnam)
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