Remember Caroline Ellison? The Alameda CEO who helped Sam Bankman-Fried steal $8 billion in customer funds from FTX. After serving 2 years in prison, she is now doing charity work under the name “Carol”.
Manifund cofounder Austin Chen disclosed on Friday that the former Alameda Research CEO is now a full-time hire. Manifund is a nonprofit grant platform that funds effective altruism and artificial intelligence safety projects. It promises radical transparency by publishing its finances, data, and source code.
A Transparency Pledge and a Hidden Hire
Ellison reportedly started a work trial on July 13 and converted to a full-time role on August 10. Across both months, she posted updates and handled user support as Carol.
Chen apologized for the pseudonym while defending the decision. His broader argument leans on second chances rather than on her résumé.
“I believe in redemption. Caroline has admitted her faults, worked to make creditors whole, and served her time in prison,” he wrote.
He also credits the FTX Future Fund, the philanthropic arm the exchange built, for seeding his earlier projects and shaping how Manifund gives money away.
Her practical selling point is bookkeeping. Chen says she built a reconciliation tool that flagged misregistered transactions worth six-figure amounts. Alameda’s own records concealed roughly $8.7 billion in missing customer deposits.
A New Life for Caroline Ellison Beyond FTX
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) closed her civil case on August 19, as BeInCrypto reported. Ellison accepted a five-year trading ban and a 10-year registration ban without a new fine.
Regulators pointed to her cooperation and to an $11.02 billion criminal forfeiture already on the books.
A separate Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) order bars her from officer and director roles at public companies, a restriction noted when she left prison in January. Nonprofit staff work sits outside it.
Meanwhile, FTX’s estate has no such ending. On the same day, its recovery trust asked a Delaware judge to block two claimants from reviving old fraud theories for extra payouts.
The trust has already sent more than $11 billion to creditors under a plan built to settle those claims collectively. That fight resumes on October 20.
