Ellison, who led Alameda Research, said SBF asked her to commit money laundering and fraud by faking figures submitted to investors.
The former CEO of Alameda Research Caroline Ellison has testified against former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) in the ongoing trial. While testifying as the fifth witness for the prosecution, Ellison said that SBF directly asked her to commit money laundering and fraud.
Ellison’s testimony includes accusatory information, including stating that she invested in other projects by taking billions of dollars of customer funds. In addition, Ellison said debts were repaid to lenders through what she described as an “essentially unlimited line of credit”.
Ellison said she and SBF dated on and off for a few years. She confirmed that she first met SBF when she interned at Jane Street, a quantitative trading company. Ellison said SBF convinced her to leave Jane Street and support his crypto efforts. Ellison and SBF have maintained little contact since the FTX collapse in November last year.
The former Alameda Research CEO stated that the company took a total of $14 billion from customers and could only repay some of it. Some of the funds SBF illegally accessed were used to fund donations for political campaigns and property purchases.
She also stated that SBF asked her to edit balance sheets and send fake figures to lenders and investors. This was to make Alameda Research look more attractive to these investors. She pleaded guilty to several charges and accepted plea agreements along with FTX execs, including Director of Engineering Nishad Singh, as well as co-founder and CTO Gary Wang.
Other Staff Speak on Alameda Research and FTX Fraud
Gary Wang had testified on October 1st, admitting to committing crimes with Ellison and Sing. During his testimony, the former CTO stated that FTX received “special privileges from Alameda Research. Responding to a question from Assistant United States Attorney Danielle Sassoon, Wang said FTX “allowed Alameda to withdraw unlimited funds.”
Wang also said that SBF handled investor discussions, media interactions, lobbying, and other public-facing tasks. He added that although SBF did not directly do any coding, he told Wang and the team what to do.
The former CTO’s testimony was part of a plea agreement he made with prosecutors after pleading guilty last December. Wang and Ellison pleaded guilty to Federal fraud charges in the Southern District of New York.
On the day of Wang’s testimony, a former FTX employee, Adam Yedidia, also testified in court. Yedidia, who was SBF’s roommate at MIT, told the court that he resigned as an FTX software developer when he realized that Alameda Research paid loans using customer deposits. Yedidia also said he found a bug in FTX’s code that allowed Alameda access to FTX customer funds without a decrease in Alameda’s liabilities.
Meanwhile, current FTX CEO John Ray III, along with other company officials, has filed a lawsuit against SBF’s parents, Allan Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried. The filing alleges that FTX was run as a family business and was exploited by SBF’s parents. The officials want to recover millions of dollars to repay company debtors.
Tolu is a cryptocurrency and blockchain enthusiast based in Lagos. He likes to demystify crypto stories to the bare basics so that anyone anywhere can understand without too much background knowledge.
When he’s not neck-deep in crypto stories, Tolu enjoys music, loves to sing and is an avid movie lover.
