Former Alameda Research chief executive Caroline Ellison says former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried directed her to commit fraud.
Ellison said Alameda, the trading arm of FTX, took around $14 billion from the exchange’s customers and used it for investments between 2020 and 2022, according to lengthy court transcripts from Bankman-Fried’s trial released by Inner City Press on the social media platform X.
Ellison says Bankman-Fried “set up the systems and told us to take the money.” She also says Alameda defrauded lenders by sending balance sheets “that made Alameda look less risky than it was.”
Ellison notes that she and Bankman-Fried “started sleeping together on and off in the summer of 2020” and dated for a while before breaking up. She says the former FTX CEO told her about his ambition to become president of the United States.
FTX filed for bankruptcy last November after its native asset collapsed and it was forced to halt customer withdrawals. Ellison says the exchange couldn’t give its customers their money because Alameda had used their assets to repay lenders.
Bankman-Fried faces a slew of charges for allegedly defrauding customers, mishandling billions of dollars worth of their funds and making illegal political donations. If convicted, he could face more than 100 years in prison.
Ellison pled guilty to fraud charges last December and is reportedly cooperating with Bankman-Fried’s prosecution.
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