Feds praise Caroline Ellison's cooperation while refusing to suggest any specific sentence when federal guidelines recommend LWOP

In this recent post, I flagged the upcoming sentencing of Caroline Ellison as an interesting high-profile case in which the federal sentencing guidelines call for an LWOP sentence, but the presentencing report recommended only "time served with three years of supervised release."   Yesterday the feds weighed in without a specific sentencing recommendation, but signaling her cooperation called for quite a sentencing reward.  This New York Times piece provides these details:

Caroline Ellison, a close colleague of the disgraced cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried, provided “extraordinary cooperation” to the government, federal prosecutors said on Tuesday, signaling that she should receive a lenient sentence for her role in the sweeping fraud that led to the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange.

Ms. Ellison, 29, who was also Mr. Bankman-Fried’s on-and-off girlfriend, pleaded guilty to fraud shortly after FTX collapsed in November 2022, alongside two other members of his inner circle. In a court filing this month, Ms. Ellison’s defense lawyers asked the judge overseeing the case, Lewis A. Kaplan, to sentence her to three years of supervised release, with no prison time.

In the government’s filing on Tuesday, prosecutors did not recommend a specific sentence to the judge but pointed out that her cooperation was “not only substantial, but exemplary.” Ms. Ellison was the star witness at Mr. Bankman-Fried’s trial last fall in federal court, where she spent nearly three days on the stand.  She described an incriminating spreadsheet that Mr. Bankman-Fried had used to mislead business partners and recounted the final days of FTX, holding back tears as she delivered some of the trial’s most emotional testimony.

Mr. Bankman-Fried was convicted of a sophisticated fraud that siphoned $8 billion from customer accounts to finance venture investments, political donations and other spending. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison in March.  Judge Kaplan is set to decide Ms. Ellison’s sentence in federal court in Manhattan on Sept. 24.

“In her many meetings with the government, Ellison approached her cooperation with remarkable candor, remorse and seriousness,” the prosecutors wrote in their 14-page memo to Judge Kaplan.  “And she persevered despite harsh media and public scrutiny and Bankman-Fried’s efforts to publicly weaponize her personal writings to discredit and intimidate her.”...

In their sentencing memo, Ms. Ellison’s lawyers detailed the often-stormy romantic relationship between their client and Mr. Bankman-Fried.  For years, they wrote, Ms. Ellison was effectively in his thrall, living in a social “bubble” centered on Mr. Bankman-Fried. At his suggestion, Ms. Ellison started taking Adderall so that she could work longer hours, the memo said. Mr. Bankman-Fried initially “suggested their liaison would develop into a full relationship,” the lawyers wrote.  “But after a few weeks, he would ‘ghost’ Caroline without explanation.”...

Since pleading guilty, Ms. Ellison has struggled to find paying work, according to her lawyers’ memo. She was turned down for a job with a charity that promoted math education for young women.  At one point, she secured a position helping low-income families prepare tax returns; a couple of weeks later, she was asked to leave after the employer realized who she was, according to a letter from her aunt that was filed with the sentencing memo.

Ms. Ellison has volunteered for more than 700 hours with community organizations, teaching adult literacy classes and fostering rescue dogs, the memo said.  She is working with her parents, who both teach at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, on a math enrichment textbook for advanced high school students, and has written a novella set in Edwardian England.

A few prior related posts:

• Lawyers for Sam Bankman-Fried in lengthy memo request "a sentence that returns Sam promptly to a productive role in society"
• Feds argue in sentencing memo that "legitimate purposes of punishment require a sentence of 40 to 50 years’ imprisonment" for Sam Bankman-Fried
• Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for his FTX frauds
• For executive connected to FTX collapse (and Sam Bankman-Fried's girlfriend), federal guidelines call for LWOP, but probation office recommends time served