On the second day of her testimony, Caroline Ellison, who oversaw Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency hedge fund while simultaneously dating the creator of FTX, revealed to the jury that one option her boss was exploring for reimbursing FTX customers was to solicit funding from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Ellison, 28, entered into a plea agreement with the government in December and, as a result, admitted guilt to numerous charges of fraud. As a result, Ellison is now seen as the prosecution’s key witness in Bankman-Fried’s trial. She testified in stunning detail on Tuesday, claiming Bankman-Fried gave the order for her and other employees to swindle FTX customers by sending billions of dollars to a sibling hedge fund called Alameda Research.
As soon as court was brought to order on Wednesday, assistant US attorney Danielle Sassoon jumped right back into the questioning.
Ellison previously explained how FTX customers’ money was used to pay back Alameda debts, but on Wednesday he claimed that cryptocurrency lender Genesis called back a number of loans in 2022 and requested to see a balance sheet. On June 28, 2022, Bankman-Fried reportedly gave Ellison instructions to create “alternative” balance statements that didn’t appear as awful because Alameda’s true balance sheet revealed it had $15 billion in FTX client cash.
Ellison, who had her long hair swept over her left shoulder and was dressed in a grey button-up blazer, claimed that she had spoken with Bankman-Fried as well as top executives Gary Wang and Nishad Singh about her worries. She reported that ideas for improving the balance sheet were discussed in the group.
Source (CNBC)
