CFTC Bans FTT-Linked FTX Insiders Ellison, Wang for 5 Years

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Aug. 19 obtained final supplemental consent orders against Caroline Ellison, former chief executive of Alameda Research, and Gary Wang, co-founder of the collapsed FTX exchange, according to the agency’s official release. Ellison is barred from trading for five years and from registering with the CFTC for ten; Wang faces the same five-year trading ban and an eight-year registration ban. The orders, entered by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, do not seek restitution, disgorgement or civil penalties, with the regulator citing the pair’s cooperation. The case has a direct FTT angle: in parallel civil litigation, the SEC alleged Ellison made misleading statements and helped support the value of FTT, the exchange’s native altcoin, while customer funds were flowing to Alameda. The CFTC’s original amended fraud complaint, filed in December 2022, accused FTX and Alameda executives of misappropriating customer assets. Both Ellison and Wang pleaded guilty in December 2022, with Ellison admitting seven counts and Wang four, including conspiracy to commit commodities fraud. The new orders extend the regulatory fallout from FTX’s November 2022 failure while formally closing the CFTC’s civil case against the two former insiders, who must continue cooperating with the agency.

Under the supplemental consent order, the five-year trading bans are retroactive to December 2022, when a federal court first found Ellison and Wang liable for fraud in the CFTC’s action. That start date means Ellison can trade again in late 2027, while Wang’s registration bar expires in 2030 and Ellison’s in 2032. The agency’s enforcement director said the sanctions reflect the pair’s material assistance in the FTX-related investigations, and the order requires both to remain cooperative. The personal histories behind that cooperation are now part of the public record. Ellison was sentenced to two years in prison in September 2024 and was released from custody in January 2026, after serving roughly 14 months. Wang received no prison term and was sentenced to time served in November 2024, with three years of supervised release. Sam Bankman-Fried, the FTX founder, remains in prison; an appeals court upheld his conviction in June and the appeal mandate issued Aug. 4, leaving a Supreme Court petition or a presidential pardon as his remaining options. The U.S. Senate has recommended against any pardon.

The financial terms of the settlement clarify why the CFTC accepted no new monetary penalties. Ellison and Wang already owe $11.02 billion under a criminal forfeiture order, and the agency cited that obligation, along with their extensive cooperation, as the basis for waiving restitution, disgorgement and civil fines. The companies themselves had reached a separate resolution: FTX and Alameda settled with the CFTC for $12.7 billion in 2024, after the agency alleged that more than $8 billion in FTX customer deposits were misused. The SEC followed a similar path in December, imposing long-term leadership bans on the same two individuals without new fines — ten years for Ellison and eight for Wang, mirroring the registration bars in the CFTC orders. Wang, who built FTX’s code, was described in the agency’s case as having written the code that allowed Alameda to drain customer funds. With these supplemental orders, the CFTC’s enforcement actions against Ellison and Wang are fully resolved. The FTX estate’s wind-down is also nearly complete, with only one final claim dispute outstanding.

The through-line across these three developments is that cooperation has real, quantifiable value in federal enforcement — but it does not erase liability. The CFTC’s official release, No. 9285-26, states that the initial and supplemental consent orders resolve the agency’s enforcement actions against Ellison and Wang; they are final court-entered orders, not proposed penalties, and they bind the two individuals directly. The document also records the agency’s rationale for waiving money damages: material assistance plus the $11.02 billion criminal forfeiture already owed. For FTT, the once-native altcoin of the exchange, the lesson is structural: an exchange-issued altcoin can become a fact in fraud litigation, as the SEC complaint alleged about efforts to prop up FTT’s value. Its all-time high no longer defines the story. As of the Aug. 19 announcement, the remaining open question in the FTX story is whether Bankman-Fried’s 25-year sentence will stand.