Caroline Ellison, left, and Stephanie Avakian, right.Twitter/@carolinecapital, WilmerHale
According to Bloomberg, Caroline Ellison employed Stephanie Avakian from law firm WilmerHale and Stephanie Avakian to represent her in the FTX probe. Avakian was a top regulator in the SEC where she increased oversight over cryptocurrency. Avakian was also involved in major cases against companies like Tesla, Theranos and Facebook, as well as Wells Fargo.
Caroline Ellison, Alameda Research’s ex-CEO, has retained a former top regulator for cryptocurrency at the US Securities and Exchange Commission. This is as the federal investigation into the collapse of FTX continues.
Bloomberg reported Ellison’s hiring of Stephanie Avakian (chair, securities and financial services department at WilmerHale) and former enforcement director for the SEC. Bloomberg was informed by sources close to the matter that Ellison will be represented by Avakian and other WilmerHale lawyers.
Akavian was the leader of a team that handled several high-profile cases against notable companies during her tenure at The SEC, 2016-2022. These include Elizabeth Holmes, who made fraudulent claims to investors to raise $700M for Theranos; Elon Musk, for tweeting misleading statements regarding a plan for Tesla’s privatization; and Facebook, for misleading investors about the dangers of misusing user information.
Akavian also played a key role in increasing cryptocurrency regulation at the SEC. He was involved in leading cases against companies such as Robinhood and RippleLab.
Ellison will be represented by WilmerHale and Avakian during the federal investigation into her former company, Alameda Research. This is the trading firm and corporate sibling to the fallen cryptocurrency exchange, FTX.
Alameda had borrowed $3.3 billion from FTX before it filed for bankruptcy in November. He lent the funds to Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of FTX, and other companies he controlled to cover losses or make risky bets according to court records.
Ellison remained a mysterious figure during the collapse of FTX, remaining mum and largely unreachable throughout its decline. Bloomberg noted that Ellison has remained silent while Bankman-Fried placed blame on Alameda multiple times in interviews. According to New York magazine, some speculate that she might be making a deal with authorities and may even be cooperating with them.
This week, the Senate Banking Committee stated that Bankman-Fried would be subpoenaed if he did not appear before legislators next week to testify.
“As the founder and CEO of FTX trading Ltd. and as the principal owner and former CEO at Alameda Research, your failure to answer for the collapse of both entities was caused at least in part by the clear misused client funds,” Senator Banking Chairman SherrodBrow stated in a statement to the former billionaire.
Business Insider has the original article.
—————————————————————————————————————————————
By: insider@insider.com (Bethany Biron)
Title: Alameda ex-CEO Caroline Ellison taps SEC’s former top crypto regulator as lawyer in FTX investigation
Sourced From: www.businessinsider.com/caroline-ellison-hires-former-top-sec-crypto-regulator-lawyer-ftx-2022-12
Published Date: Sat, 10 Dec 2022 19:59:49 +0000
Related posts:
Twitter Gets A New Chief Executive Officer As Musk Decides To Step Down
Microsoft’s chief science officer says AI is not on hold – despite what Elon says
Elon brought his mother along to a meeting of advertisers, where he posted a tweet criticizing Trump. He fired an executive after he didn’t laugh at the tweet, according to a report.
Elon Musk’s New Twitter Executive Faces ‘Glass Cliff’ Scenario
Leave a Reply