“Bankman-Fried relied on Ellison and he trusted her to act as the CEO and manage the day-to-day,” Cohen said in his opening statement last week. “… As the majority owner of Alameda, he spoke to Ms. Ellison, the CEO, and he urged her to put on a hedge, something that would protect against such a downturn. She didn’t do so at the time, and this also becomes an issue later on, when the storm hit.” Source
Tag: FTX
Russian Cybercriminals May Have Been Behind Hack of SBF’s FTX, On-Chain Research Indicates
“Of the 4,536 Bitcoins converted from ether at RenBridge, 2,849 BTC was sent through mixers, predominantly a service called ChipMixer,” Ellipic said. “Tracing these assets becomes more challenging, however at least $4 million was transferred to exchanges, where it may have been cashed out.” CryptoX Portal
FTX paid $100m in Chinese bribes to unfreeze $1b of investigated funds
Caroline Ellison, on day six of United States v Bankman-Fried, testified that FTX’s founder continued to lie to the public while liquidity and assets dried up behind the scenes. The second week of Bankman-Fried’s fraud for fraud allegations set headlines ablaze as former Alameda Research boss Caroline Ellison accounts of “Sam coins” and FTT’s importance in FTX’s financial operations. FTT was not to fall below $1, Ellison said quoting Sam and discussing the token was a taboo outside of the inner circle which included Ellison herself, Gary Wang (CTO, Alameda/FTX),…
Sam Bankman-Fried considered selling FTX equity to Saudi crown prince, says Caroline Ellison
Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison claimed in court that Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried attempted to raise equity for FTX by considering an investment from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, or MBS. Addressing the court at SBF’s criminal trial on Oct. 11, Ellison reportedly said she had discussed ways of hedging Alameda investments with Bankman-Fried in 2022. According to the former Alameda CEO, Bankman-Fried said that MBS was a potential investor in the crypto exchange prior to its collapse in November. The potential investment by MBS was one of the…
Caroline Ellison provided 7 ‘alternative’ balance sheets hiding Alameda’s exposure to FTX
Testifying on the sixth day of Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial in New York, former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison admitted to providing fudged numbers for review by Genesis. According to reports from the courtroom on Oct. 11, Ellison claimed Bankman-Fried directed her to create “alternative” balance sheets on Alameda’s use of crypto exchange FTX’s funds. She reportedly testified that she had provided 7 spreadsheets, one of which SBF presented to Genesis. The document did not reveal Alameda had borrowed $10 billion from FTX. “Sam said don’t sent the balance…
Sam Bankman-Fried’s Defense Wants to Ask Caroline Ellison About FTX Lawyers’ Advice, Anthropic AI Raise
“This witness who’s on the stand made a personal investment in Anthropic and has knowledge of the company’s investment in Anthropic, and so in the event that the Court deems this admissible, it might be an issue that we want to raise with her,” said the prosecutor, Danielle Sassoon. “We don’t think that this is a permissible topic of questioning, but if it is, we may want to ask her questions about it.” Source
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial day 5: Recap
Bankman-Fried’s girlfriend and Alameda’s ex-CEO took the stand on the second week of the trial, revealing that SBF used customer funds for political lobbying. The second week of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial kicked off at 10 a.m. New York time today, as the defendant’s ex-girlfriend and former Alameda CEO, Caroline Ellison, took the stand. The testimony revealed details of how SBF used FTX’s customer funds, including political lobbying for both Democrats and Republicans. Cross-examination of Gary Wang, CTO and Co-founder of FTX Gary Wang was questioned by the prosecutors…
FTX co-founder Wang discusses plea deal, knowledge of financial concepts at SBF trial
Day six of the trial of Sam Bankman-Fried saw the conclusion of former FTX chief technology officer Gary Wang’s testimony and the beginning of former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison’s. Wang testified about his plea deal, among other things. According to Inner City Press on X (formerly Twitter), Assistant United States Attorney Nicolas Roos asked Wang, “At your first meeting with the government, did you admit to committing crimes with the defendant?” Wang replied that he did. “What were you told to do?” Roos asked. “To tell the truth or…
Caroline Ellison blames Sam Bankman-Fried for misuse of FTX user funds at trial
Former FTX CEO Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried watched from the defense table as his former business associate and girlfriend Caroline Ellison testified at his criminal trial. According to reports from the courtroom on Oct. 10, Ellison admitted to fraud during her time at Alameda at Bankman-Fried’s direction. The former Alameda CEO reportedly placed the blame for misuse of FTX user funds directly on SBF, claiming he “set up the systems” leading to Alameda taking roughly $14 billion from the exchange. “Alameda took several billions of dollars from FTX customers and used…
SBF seeks to probe FTX lawyers’ roles in $200M Alameda loans
Sam Bankman-Fried’s legal team is looking for permission to probe the alleged involvement of FTX lawyers in the issuance of $200 million worth of loans from Alameda that were approved by Gary Wang. As previously reported in the build-up to the highly anticipated trial, an Oct. 1 court ruling provisionally barred Bankman-Fried from apportioning blame to FTX lawyers who were allegedly involved in structuring and approving loans between Alameda and FTX. United States Judge Lewis Kaplan granted the government’s motion and ruled that Bankman-Fried’s legal team would have to request…