‘He Directed Me To Commit These Crimes’: Alleged Fraudster’s Ex Blames Him At Trial

Sam Bankman-Fried’s ex-girlfriend, Caroline Ellison, blamed him in her testimony Tuesday for the alleged fraud they committed, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Ellison was the former CEO of Alameda Research, the sister hedge fund to the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, which Bankman-Fried formerly headed before it collapsed, according to the WSJ. She asserted in her testimony at his trial that the disgraced crypto tycoon instructed her to commit fraud regarding FTX and Alameda’s relationship and that he put the system in place to enable Alameda to withdraw unlimited funds from the cryptocurrency exchange.

“He directed me to commit these crimes,” Ellison reportedly stated of Bankman-Fried, according to the WSJ.

“He is the one who set up the system to allow Alameda to take money,” she also stated.

Bankman-Fried is facing seven charges, such as defrauding FTX customers and lenders, according to the The New York Times. Prosecutors assert that he masterminded a scheme of diverting billions of dollars from customers’ FTX deposits to fund campaign contributions, donations to charities and real estate acquisitions.

Bankman-Fried allegedly “falsely reassured FTX customers about the safety of their funds in order to slow their withdrawals and retain their money, and conspired to and did make false statements to Alameda’s lenders to prevent them from recalling millions of dollars in loans that Alameda owed,” according to the superseding indictment against him.

“Alameda regularly took customer funds from those bank accounts, transferred the funds to other bank accounts under Alameda’s control, and used or spent the funds,” the indictment states. “As a result of the spending of customers’ deposits, FTX and Alameda had a multi-billion-dollar deficit of customer funds.”

The indictment alleges that Bankman-Fried “directed” Ellison to defraud investors about Alameda’s financial relationship with FTX, including how much money Alameda “borrowed” from FTX.

“We ultimately took around $14 billion, some of which we were able to pay back,” Ellison stated on Tuesday, accordingto CNBC. “I sent balance sheets to lenders at the direction of Sam that incorrectly stated Alameda’s assets and liabilities.”

Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty and could end up in prison for life if he is found guilty, according to the NYT.