Plea agreement would waive Ellison of any charges, except criminal tax violations, provided she fully cooperates with U.S. Attorney’s office.

Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison will not be allowed to leave the continental United States, and must to forfeit any proceeds derived from the commission of the offenses she has been charged with, according to a recently unsealed plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York.

The plea agreement was first obtained by New York’s Inner City Press, a publication that covers court proceedings in the city’s U.S. court.

The agreement states that if Ellison fully cooperates with the SDNY’s investigation, as well as any other law enforcement agency designated by the office, she won’t be further prosecuted criminally except for possible criminal tax violations with regard to the wire and commodity fraud charges that resulted from commingling funds between FTX and Alameda accounts.

A court would need to agree to the plea deal for it to be in effect. A paragraph of the document has been redacted, removing information about some of the possible charges.

Ellison will be permitted bail, provided she can provide a $250,000 personal recognizance bond and restrict travel to the continental United States. She will also need to surrender any travel documents she has.

The plea deal also contains language that says if Ellison is not a U.S. citizen, it is very likely that her removal from the U.S. will be mandatory. It is assumed that Ellison is a U.S. national, but it is unclear if she might have abandoned her nationality for a citizenship of convenience for tax reasons which is a popular trend among some crypto traders living abroad, and the U.S. taxes non-residents.

The post Caroline Ellison Plea Agreement: $250,000 Bail, Surrender of Travel Documents, Forfeiture of Assets appeared first on Crypto Insider.

Merge plans to bridge the gap between crypto and traditional finance companies with its API payments integration.

London-based cryptocurrency payments firm Merge has raised a $9.5 million seed round led by Octopus Ventures, as well as Coinbase Ventures, Alameda Research and Hashed.

Other investors include founders of Aave, Polygon, the CEO of Ledger and the former CEO of Barclays Consumer Banking.

Merge plans to deploy the capital to ensure that cryptocurrency companies can make payments and work with traditional financial services in a more efficient way.

“As the crypto economy moves further into the mainstream, it’s increasingly clear that the current financial infrastructure isn’t fit to serve the rapid expansion of crypto-native businesses and many providers aren’t specialized enough to gauge risk,” Zihao Xu, investor at Octopus Ventures, said.

Merge will not only focus on holding and transferring fiat funds for crypto and Web 3 companies, but will also manage compliance through its API.

The firm shared with CoinDesk that it has several clients lined up, with an announcement expected this quarter.

Despite a recent market downturn, venture capitalists are continuing to invest in the cryptocurrency industry, with Andreessen Horowitz raising $4.5 billion for a new crypto fund on Wednesday.

“We see it as a temporary blip,” Merge co-founder Kebbie Sebastian told CoinDesk on the current market. “The fundamental potential of cryptocurrency remains the same despite market volatility.”

The post Crypto Payments Firm Merge Raises $9.5M From Coinbase Ventures, Alameda Research and Others appeared first on Crypto Insider.