Caroline Ellison, former chief government officer of Alameda Analysis LLC, heart, arrives at court docket in New York, US, on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023.
Yuki Iwamura | Bloomberg | Getty Photos
Caroline Ellison, the previous head of Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto hedge fund and the federal government’s star witness within the prison fraud case in opposition to the FTX founder, testified on Tuesday that she and her ex-boss defrauded prospects, traders and lenders.
“Sure, we did,” Ellison stated, when Danielle Sassoon, assistant U.S. lawyer, requested if she dedicated against the law. “I imply Sam and I and others.”
From a courthouse in downtown Manhattan, Ellison then listed her crimes: “fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud, and cash laundering.”
Ellison, who ran Alameda Analysis, pleaded responsible in December to 2 counts of wire fraud, two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit cash laundering. A part of the 28-year-old’s plea cope with the federal government has concerned cooperating with the prosecution’s case in opposition to Bankman-Fried.
Ellison’s testimony began at 12:37 p.m. and lasted lower than 10 minutes earlier than the court docket broke for lunch. It can resume at about 2 p.m.
Donning a crimson gown with a free grey blazer and glasses, Ellison supplied a short background of how she acquired to know Bankman-Fried. They met when she was an intern at Jane Road, a proprietary buying and selling agency in New York. They later labored collectively at Alameda and dated for a pair years, she stated.
Ellison was one in every of Bankman-Fried’s earliest recruits to Alameda in 2017. Bankman-Fried had reportedly satisfied the Stanford grad to ditch her job at Jane Capital to hitch Alameda as a dealer, when the hedge fund was nonetheless in its unique workplace within the San Francisco Bay space.
When requested by Sassoon to establish the defendant, Ellison stood up and, for nearly 30 seconds, regarded across the room. She turned her head all the way in which to the left to the jury field and again to the correct once more a number of instances earlier than lastly figuring out Bankman-Fried as sitting “over there and carrying a go well with.” Bankman-Fried, who was recognized for his floppy hair and seashore shorts, acquired a contemporary haircut previous to the trial, reportedly from a fellow inmate on the jail in Brooklyn the place he is been held since August.
Ellison stated Bankman-Fried was the unique CEO and the proprietor of Alameda.
“Sam directed me to commit these crimes,” she stated. He “directed us to take buyer cash to pay loans.”
Bankman-Fried, 31, faces seven federal prices, together with wire fraud, securities fraud and cash laundering, all tied to the collapse of FTX and Alameda late final yr. If convicted within the trial that started every week in the past, Bankman-Fried may spend his life in jail. He is pleaded not responsible.
Central to the case in opposition to Bankman-Fried is the billions of {dollars} that flowed from buyer accounts at FTX to Alameda, which had a large gap in its stability sheet after the crypto markets turned in 2022.
Ellison stated Alameda took a number of billion {dollars} from FTX prospects and that Bankman-Fried had not solely arrange a system to steal the funds but additionally directed Ellison and others to make use of buyer funds to repay loans within the ballpark of $10 billion.
“We in the end took round $14 billion, a few of which we have been in a position to pay again,” she stated. “I despatched stability sheets to lenders on the route of Sam that incorrectly said Alameda’s belongings and liabilities.”
She stated the numbers have been adjusted to make Alameda look much less dangerous as an funding.
WATCH: Caroline Ellison testifies Sam Bankman-Fried directed her to commit crimes
