Sam Bankman-Fried’s ex-girlfriend is ‘working with prosecutors’ against him to ‘spin her narrative’ days after she hired a top lawyer
- Caroline Ellison, the CEO of Alameda Research, is apparently working with the federal government against her ex-boyfriend Sam Bankman-Fried
- Ellison, 28, was appointed as head of the multibillion dollar company in 2021 by Bankman-Fried despite not having any expert knowledge about cryptocurrency
- Alameda Research is allegedly behind FTX’s collapse and mused client funds
- Ellison hired a legal team as prosecutors investigate the collapse of FTX
- Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas last week and is set to appear in court to announce he is no longer contesting his extradition
Sam Bankman-Fried’s ex-girlfriend is ‘cooperating with officials’ to ‘spin her narrative’ days after she recruited a legal team and top lawyer.
Caroline Ellison, 28, is the CEO of Alameda Research, another company founded by Bankman-Fried – which is accused of gambling with FTX client money on risky trades.
With Bankman-Fried set to appear in a Bahama courthouse on Monday following his arrest last week, Ellison appears to be working with officials against her ex-lover.
Former US Attorney Marc Litt weighed in on the matter and said he wouldn’t be surprised if Ellison was cooperating with investigators because she has ‘a choice to make.’
Bankman-Fried is behind what prosecutors are calling ‘one of the biggest financial frauds in American history’ following the collapse of his once billion-dollar digital currency exchange, FTX.
Caroline Ellison, the CEO of Alameda Research, is apparently working with the federal government against her ex-boyfriend Sam Bankman-Fried
Former US Attorney Marc Litt weighed in on the matter and said he wouldn’t be surprised if Ellison was cooperating with officials
Litt appeared on Fox and Friends Weekend on Sunday to discuss Ellison’s next moves in the Bankman-Fried scandal with Will Cain.
Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas on Monday and charged with money laundry and fraud. He is currently awaiting extradition back to the US.
Ellison and Bankman-Fried were previously in a relationship and lived together with eight other senior FTX and Alameda staffers at Bankman-Fried’s $40 million Bahamas penthouse.
The disgraced FTX CEO previously blamed the disaster lay with Alameda Research, the trading firm which he founded in 2017 and was run by Ellison.
Bankman-Fried, who owned a majority stake in Alameda, installed Ellison as CEO of the multibillion dollar fund in October 2021 despite her limited professional trading experience.
He appears to accept FTX lent Alameda billions of dollars in clients’ money without their knowledge or permission. The crisis at FTX was triggered when customers rushed to withdraw their funds but the company couldn’t pay out.
Litt said he wouldn’t be surprised if Ellison was working with the federal government in order to save herself.
‘She was the CEO of a company that seems to be intimately involved in the alleged fraud, and she’s… in the cross-hairs of the government… and she’s got a choice to make.’
Ellison prepares to face scrutiny as prosecutors look into whether FTX misused billions of dollars in client funds by transferring them to Alameda.
She has remained silent and has hired Stephanie Avakian, former director of the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement.
‘There’s a little bit of a race to the prosecution at this point because the government needs cooperators,’ Litt said. ‘
‘It’s in her interest to spin her narrative and tell her story before everybody else that the government talks to, points the finger at her, so she has every incentive to cooperate and get the benefits of cooperation.’
Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas last week and is set to appear in court to announce he is no longer contesting his extradition. Pictured: Bankman-Fried being escorted out of the Magistrate Court building after his arrest of December 13
His ex-girlfriend has apparently turned on him since his arrest. He previously blamed Ellison for FTX’s downfall
Bankman-Fried, who owned a majority stake in Alameda, installed Ellison as CEO of the multibillion dollar fund in October 2021
Bankman-Fried will appear in court on Monday to agree to extradition to the US after seeking to delay his return.
Litt believed that the FTX owner didn’t stand a chance to remain in the Bahamas due to his charges.
‘The defendant has rights,’ Litt said. ‘There’s a process that needs to be followed, and the defendant has a tough choice to make. He can either decide to fight extradition or he can waive that process and come voluntarily to the United States
He added: ‘It’s very difficult to defend oneself against these kind of charges from prison, from jail. It’s doubly hard to do so if you’re in a foreign country.’
Bankman-Fried faces up to 115 years in prison if ultimately convicted of all eight counts he faces in the United States, though any sentence would ultimately be determined by a judge based on a range of factors.
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