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Sam Bankman-Fried- Case Archive
personpersonCaroline EllisonCaroline EllisonFormer chief executive officer of Alameda Research, where she began as a trader and later served as co-CEO.← All People
WitnessAlameda Research

Caroline Ellison

Former chief executive officer of Alameda Research, where she began as a trader and later served as co-CEO.

AppearedFederal Criminal Trial
2,169 lines·49 proceedings·35 mentions

About

Caroline Ellison testified for the prosecution over three trial days about Alameda Research's use of FTX customer assets, its financial condition, its communications with lenders, and the November 2022 crisis. She admitted committing fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering with Samuel Bankman-Fried and testified under a cooperation agreement.

On direct examination, Ellison said Alameda obtained about $14 billion in customer assets through deposits routed to Alameda-controlled accounts and special access at FTX, with some funds later repaid. She described the assets as supporting trading, investments, political donations, insider loans, and lender repayments. Although she managed much of Alameda's daily business, she testified that Bankman-Fried retained authority over major decisions and directed significant investment and repayment choices.

Ellison described calculations showing that Alameda lacked enough liquid assets to meet loan recalls without using customer funds. She said Bankman-Fried selected an alternative balance sheet that concealed roughly $10 billion borrowed from customers, and she admitted making dishonest or misleading statements to lenders, the public, and employees. Her testimony also covered disappearing Signal messages, attempts to recover frozen exchange accounts, the withdrawal crisis, Alameda's wind-down, and her explanations to employees about the shortfall and who knew customer deposits had been used.

Cross-examination examined Ellison's own authority over Alameda's employees, accounting, borrowing, lending, trading, and hedging, as well as reconciliation failures, trading bugs, incomplete hedging, and a multibillion-dollar liability-calculation error. The defense also tested her recollection, her prior communications, her personal relationship with Bankman-Fried, her meetings with prosecutors, and her hope for a sentencing benefit. Ellison acknowledged that a morale-focused employee message was more positive than her private assessment and qualified one recollection about Bankman-Fried's possible knowledge of legacy deposits, while maintaining that Alameda's undisclosed borrowing placed FTX customer funds at risk. The prosecution conducted redirect examination on Day 7.

Trial Record (49)

FederalFederal Criminal TrialOct 3, 2023 – Nov 2, 2023Called by prosecution

Caroline Ellison testified for the prosecution about Alameda's use of FTX customer assets, concealed borrowing, misleading communications, and the November 2022 crisis. Cross-examination tested her operational responsibility, recollection, prior statements, and cooperation incentive.

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

DirectGary Wang — DirectGary WangNicolas RoosMentioned

Summary

Gary Wang testified that Alameda received undisclosed code privileges and a line of credit exceeding $65 billion, used customer funds, accumulated multibillion-dollar shortfalls, and remained central to FTX's withdrawal crisis and post-bankruptcy asset transfers.

Mentioned in this proceeding.

Day 5

Day 6

DirectCaroline Ellison — DirectCaroline EllisonDanielle R. Sassoon8highlights412lines spoken

Summary

Ellison testified that Alameda repaid recalled loans with FTX customer assets, concealed customer borrowing in lender balance sheets selected by Sam, and used disappearing communications; she also described qualified, contested testimony about payments made during efforts to unfreeze exchange accounts.

Highlights (8)

testimony highlightEllison testified that Alameda lacked enough liquid assets to satisfy recalled loans, that the defendant continued directing repayment, and that she understood those directions to require using FTX customer funds.Open in transcript →
evidence eventUsing the June balance spreadsheet, Ellison described billions in Alameda borrowing, reduced assets available on FTX, and her estimates of the risk that FTX could not satisfy customer withdrawals.Open in transcript →
Quote“Because Sam always directed us to be careful about what we put in writing and not put things in writing that might get us in legal trouble.”— Caroline EllisonThe testimony linked Ellison's euphemistic spreadsheet label to instructions about avoiding damaging written records.Open in transcript →
admissionEllison testified that she prepared seven alternative balance sheets at the defendant's direction, that alternative 7 concealed FTX customer borrowing and related-party loans, and that he selected it for Genesis.Open in transcript →
Show all 8 highlights
Quote“I wasn't sure what the best thing to send to Genesis would be. I didn't really want to be dishonest, but I also didn't want them to know the truth, so I just thought I'd prepare a variety of things and ask Sam what he wanted to do.”— Caroline EllisonEllison described her acknowledged conflict while preparing alternative lender balance sheets and attributed the final choice to Sam.Open in transcript →
Quote“The intended effect was to make Alameda look less risky than it really was and to hide the fact that we were borrowing around $10 billion from FTX customers.”— Caroline EllisonThis was a direct admission about the intended presentation of alternative 7.Open in transcript →
admissionEllison characterized the Genesis balance sheet as dishonest because it hid approximately $10 billion borrowed from FTX customers and made Alameda appear safer than she believed it was.Open in transcript →
testimony highlightEllison testified that disappearing Signal messages and warnings about written records limited what remained of conversations concerning lender disclosures and FTX customer funds.Open in transcript →
Jury InstructionLimiting Instruction on China Evidence1highlightMentioned

Summary

The court barred a question seeking Caroline Ellison's conclusion about a payment recipient and instructed the jury to consider the China-related evidence only for trust and motive, not as proof of a charged bribery crime.

Mentioned in this proceeding.

Highlights (1)

rulingThe court sustained the defense objection to asking what conclusion Caroline Ellison reached about the likely payment recipient, while expressly making no ruling about later questions or evidence.Open in transcript →
DirectCaroline Ellison — Direct ResumedCaroline EllisonDanielle R. Sassoon1highlight471lines spoken

Summary

Ellison used internal records and public statements to describe concealment of Alameda's use of FTX customer funds, misleading crisis messaging, an internal multibillion-dollar shortfall, and her guilty pleas and cooperation incentive.

Highlights (1)

Quote“Because I didn't want him raising concerns about this with others, and I didn't want the fact of our crime to get out.”— Caroline EllisonEllison directly admitted lying to an Alameda employee to prevent disclosure of conduct she described as criminal.Open in transcript →
ProceduralPost-Jury Evidentiary and Exhibit MattersMentioned

Summary

The court barred proposed portfolio-investing questions during Ellison's cross-examination, left open a later qualified-witness proffer, and reserved decision on questioning about counsel's involvement in auto-deletion policies.

Mentioned in this proceeding.

Day 7

RedirectCaroline Ellison — RedirectCaroline EllisonDanielle R. Sassoon1highlight41lines spoken

Summary

Ellison defended her all-hands account, attributed the customer-fund shortfall to repayment of Alameda's loans, explained disputed financial presentations, and identified unpaid customer borrowing as the main cause of FTX's collapse in her view.

Highlights (1)

Quote“I explained that Alameda had made billions of dollars of venture investments and had bought back FTX equity from Binance using open-term loans and that when the loans had been recalled, we had to use or we did use FTX customer funds to repay them, which had caused the shortfall.”— Caroline EllisonEllison directly connected the customer-fund shortfall to repayment of Alameda's recalled loans.Open in transcript →

Day 8

DirectZac Prince — DirectZac PrinceNicolas RoosMentioned

Summary

Zac Prince described BlockFi's due diligence and reliance on Alameda's financial statements, explained why it extended hundreds of millions of dollars in new loans, and testified that approximately $1 billion in combined Alameda and FTX exposure was not returned.

Mentioned in this proceeding.

CrossZac Prince — CrossZac PrinceMark S. CohenMentioned

Summary

Defense counsel used BlockFi credit records to examine known risks in lending to Alameda, while Prince distinguished a rejected loan proposal from later, more highly collateralized loans and described BlockFi's reliance on counterparty information.

Mentioned in this proceeding.

Day 9

Day 10

Day 14

CrossMarc Troiano — CrossMarc TroianoChristian R. EverdellMentioned

Summary

Defense counsel tested the prosecution's role in preparing the Signal summary chart and Troiano's limited knowledge. After striking a misleading question and answer, the court restricted repetitive or out-of-scope questioning, while Troiano confirmed three entries attributed to SBF turning off auto-delete and a one-week setting for the “KYC/legal discuss” group.

Mentioned in this proceeding.

Day 15

Day 16

Day 17

Charge ConferenceCharge ConferenceMentioned

Summary

The court resolved extensive disputes over the final jury charge and, after reconvening, ruled that the misappropriation theory would require proof of a false statement.

Mentioned in this proceeding.

Day 18

Day 19

Jury InstructionFinal Jury InstructionsMentioned

Summary

The court delivered the final charge on all seven counts, the government's burdens, evidence and credibility, the verdict form, and unanimous deliberations.

Mentioned in this proceeding.