SEC v. Caroline Ellison; Gary Wang; and Nishad Singh, No. LR-26450, Southern District of New York (Dec. 19, 2025) — Press Release

U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSIONLitigation Release No. 26450 / December 19, 2025Securities and Exchange Commission v. Caroline Ellison and Zixiao “Gary” Wang, No. 1:22-cv-10794 (S.D.N.Y. filed Dec. 21, 2022) and Securities and Exchange Commission v. Nishad Singh, No. 1:23-cv-01691 (S.D.N.Y. filed Feb. 28, 2023)SEC Obtains Final Consent Judgments Against Two Former FTX Executives and a Former Alameda ExecutiveToday the SEC filed proposed final consent judgments in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York as to Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research Ltd. (a subsidiary of Alameda Research LLC (Alameda)), Zixiao (Gary) Wang, the former Chief Technology Officer of FTX Trading Ltd. (FTX), and Nishad Singh, the former Co-Lead Engineer of FTX.The SEC’s complaints—filed against Ellison and Wang in December 2022, and against Singh in February 2023—alleged that, from at least May 2019 through November 2022, Samuel Bankman-Fried and FTX raised more than $1.8 billion dollars from investors by falsely claiming FTX was a safe crypto asset trading platform with sophisticated automated risk mitigation measures to protect customer assets, and by telling investors that Alameda, a crypto asset hedge fund owned by Bankman-Fried and Wang, was just another platform customer with no special privileges. In reality, as alleged in the complaints, Bankman-Fried, Wang, and Singh, with Ellison’s knowledge and consent, had exempted Alameda from the risk mitigation measures and provided Alameda with a virtually unlimited “line of credit” funded by FTX’s customers. The complaints also alleged that Wang and Singh created FTX’s software code that allowed FTX customer funds to be diverted to Alameda, and that Ellison used misappropriated FTX customer funds for Alameda’s trading activity. According to the complaints, Bankman-Fried, with the knowledge of Ellison, Wang, and Singh, directed hundreds of millions of dollars more in FTX customer funds to Alameda, where these funds were used for additional venture investments and “loans” to Bankman-Fried and other FTX executives, including Wang and Singh.Without denying the Commission’s allegations, Ellison, Wang, and Singh consented to the entry of final judgments, subject to court approval, in which they agreed to be permanently enjoined from violating the antifraud provisions of Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder and Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, and to 5-year conduct-based injunctions. Ellison also consented to a 10-year officer-and-director bar, and Wang and Singh consented to 8-year officer-and-director bars.The SEC’s litigation was conducted by Amy Burkart. The investigation was conducted by Ms. Burkart, Devlin Su, Ivan Snyder, David S. Brown, Brian Huchro, and Pasha Salimi under the supervision of Laura D’Allaird and Amy Flaherty Hartman of the Enforcement Division’s Cyber and Emerging Technologies Unit and Michael Brennan.

U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSIONLitigation Release No. 26450 / December 19, 2025Securities and Exchange Commission v. Caroline Ellison and Zixiao “Gary” Wang, No. 1:22-cv-10794 (S.D.N.Y. filed Dec. 21, 2022) and Securities and Exchange Commission v. Nishad Singh, No. 1:23-cv-01691 (S.D.N.Y. filed Feb. 28, 2023)SEC Obtains Final Consent Judgments Against Two Former FTX Executives and a Former Alameda ExecutiveToday the SEC filed proposed final consent judgments in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York as to Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research Ltd. (a subsidiary of Alameda Research LLC (Alameda)), Zixiao (Gary) Wang, the former Chief Technology Officer of FTX Trading Ltd. (FTX), and Nishad Singh, the former Co-Lead Engineer of FTX.The SEC’s complaints—filed against Ellison and Wang in December 2022, and against Singh in February 2023—alleged that, from at least May 2019 through November 2022, Samuel Bankman-Fried and FTX raised more than $1.8 billion dollars from investors by falsely claiming FTX was a safe crypto asset trading platform with sophisticated automated risk mitigation measures to protect customer assets, and by telling investors that Alameda, a crypto asset hedge fund owned by Bankman-Fried and Wang, was just another platform customer with no special privileges. In reality, as alleged in the complaints, Bankman-Fried, Wang, and Singh, with Ellison’s knowledge and consent, had exempted Alameda from the risk mitigation measures and provided Alameda with a virtually unlimited “line of credit” funded by FTX’s customers. The complaints also alleged that Wang and Singh created FTX’s software code that allowed FTX customer funds to be diverted to Alameda, and that Ellison used misappropriated FTX customer funds for Alameda’s trading activity. According to the complaints, Bankman-Fried, with the knowledge of Ellison, Wang, and Singh, directed hundreds of millions of dollars more in FTX customer funds to Alameda, where these funds were used for additional venture investments and “loans” to Bankman-Fried and other FTX executives, including Wang and Singh.Without denying the Commission’s allegations, Ellison, Wang, and Singh consented to the entry of final judgments, subject to court approval, in which they agreed to be permanently enjoined from violating the antifraud provisions of Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder and Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, and to 5-year conduct-based injunctions. Ellison also consented to a 10-year officer-and-director bar, and Wang and Singh consented to 8-year officer-and-director bars.The SEC’s litigation was conducted by Amy Burkart. The investigation was conducted by Ms. Burkart, Devlin Su, Ivan Snyder, David S. Brown, Brian Huchro, and Pasha Salimi under the supervision of Laura D’Allaird and Amy Flaherty Hartman of the Enforcement Division’s Cyber and Emerging Technologies Unit and Michael Brennan.