The parents of disgraced FTX crypto tycoon Sam Bankman-Fried’s ex-girlfriend were too busy to comment on Thursday about their daughter’s role in the ongoing investigation.
“We’re busy right now,” Sarah Fisher Ellison told The Post when asked if her daughter, Caroline Ellison, would cooperate with prosecutors against her ex-boyfriend.
Fisher Ellison and her husband, Glenn Ellison — both MIT economists — stepped out of their Newton, Mass., home to break the cover for the first time since their daughter was at the center of the FTX crypto scandal, feeling a little embarrassed.
Dressed smartly against the cold, the couple lugged a few bags into their orange Hyundai Kona before driving off.
“I have not seen [Caroline] Since Thanksgiving,” one neighbor told The Post.
While her parents have appeared for the time being, Ellison, 28, remains elusive amid reports that she has hired high-powered D.C. attorney Stephanie Avakian and is seeking to cooperate with the intensifying federal investigation. She was last seen in early December, allegedly getting coffee at a Soho restaurant.
Ellison first came under fire last month when her ex-boyfriend Bankman-Fried tried to blame her for the collapse of the FTX empire. A “Harry Potter” fan interested in polyamory, Ellison was previously CEO of FTX’s sister hedge fund Alameda Research.
After Bankman-Fried was arrested Monday in the Bahamas, investigators are investigating whether FTX illegally used billions of dollars in customer funds to pay off debts owed by Alameda during Ellison’s tenure.
Moira Penza, a former federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of New York, previously told The Post that Ellison was interested in cooperating with the investigation.
“There is a strong incentive for someone like Ellison, who is in SBF’s inner circle and has already publicly incriminated himself, to cooperate early,” he explained.
“It is not unheard of [the Southern District of New York] people who cooperated and would otherwise have been sentenced to ten years or more in prison will be sentenced to serve time in lieu.”
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