Did Caroline Ellison and SBF Cook Alameda’s Books to Save the World?
Ellison Was CEO But SBF Was Still Boss at Alameda, Her Testimony Suggests
The testimony of Caroline Ellison, the former business, romantic – and by her estimation, criminal – partner of Sam Bankman-Fried, whom she identified upon prosecutors’ request – began in the vaguest of ways.
Gary Wang, Caroline Ellison: Looking at Day 5 of Sam Bankman-Fried’s Trial
FTX co-founder and former Chief Technology Officer Gary Wang began testifying in earnest last Friday in Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial. Later on Tuesday, Caroline Ellison is expected to take the stand.
The DOJ Has Come Out Swinging in the Sam Bankman-Fried Trial
The trial has started off strong for the Department of Justice. Some expected the DOJ to bring its most important witnesses – namely Sam Bankman-Fried’s former inner circle – toward the end of the trial – but oh how wrong we were.
Sam Bankman-Fried’s Lawyers Test the Judge’s Patience
It could take six weeks for prosecutors to make their case against Sam Bankman-Fried. But only three days were needed for the judge overseeing his trial to lose patience with the former crypto chief’s defense team.
Unpacking the First Day of Sam Bankman-Fried’s Actual Trial
A Parisian cocoa trader told Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial jury that pricey ads and FTX’s confident CEO helped convince him the crypto exchange was a safe place to deposit over $100,000 so he could trade cryptocurrencies – but he never expected that anyone but him would touch his funds, kicking off testimony just hours after the jury was selected and sworn in.
No Jury Yet, but We’re Getting There
Sam Bankman-Fried had a grin on his face as he entered court on Tuesday morning – clad in a black suit and an uncharacteristically tame (read: closely trimmed) mop of hair. After nine long months, the disgraced crypto founder will finally have the chance to defend himself against a wide array of federal fraud and conspiracy charges tied to the collapse of FTX, his crypto and futures exchange, and Alameda Research, the crypto trading firm he founded and – according to prosecutors – used to illegally re-invest FTX user funds.
The Collapse of FTX, in Sam’s Own Words
We may not know for weeks whether Sam Bankman-Fried will take the stand at his own trial. He may want the chance to explain himself to the jury, but his lawyers are surely wary of the withering cross-examination such a tactic would invite. No matter: the unconventional former crypto executive has already said – publicly – plenty about what went down in FTX’s final days.
Sam Bankman-Fried Goes on Trial Tomorrow
It is officially trial week, everyone – or as Bloomberg’s Joe Weisenthal would likely put it, “this is why we get up in the morning.” It’s been exactly nine months and 20 days since Sam Bankman-Fried got arrested in his then-home in the Bahamas. Today marks the last day before he is set to start trial in which he will win back his freedom – or be locked up for what a federal judge says a “very long” time.
EnSam, Jury Questions and Another Denial for Bankman-Fried
In a rare display of candor – or as part of a calculated exercise in reputation management – Sam Bankman-Fried delved deep into his mental health struggles in a trove of unposted tweets obtained by CoinDesk’s Christine Lee and published for the first time on Friday. “I don’t really know what ‘happiness’ means,” he said in one of the tweets, which he wrote just weeks after his crypto empire blew up last year, as he was facing down a tidal wave of public scorn.
2 Small Wins For Sam Bankman-Fried
After multiple consecutive setbacks for the former FTX CEO and his defense team, Judge Lewis Kaplan seemed to have been in a slightly more generous mood yesterday.
Overcrowded, No Heat, Little Light: Inside SBF’s Prison Digs
Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has traded his palatial Bahamas bunker for a bunk bed as he transitions from luxe to lockup.
Sam Bankman-Fried (Probably) Won’t Get a 115-Year Prison Sentence
If he’s convicted of wire fraud and/or conspiracy charges, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried will probably spend quite a bit of time behind bars. But there’s a good chance the 31-year-old won’t spend the rest of his life in prison.
Sam Bankman-Fried Sort of Had a Rough Day
Yesterday was arguably not a great day for Sam Bankman-Fried. First, the judge overseeing his case rejected all seven of his proposed expert witnesses*, questioning at least one’s qualifications and saying some others really wouldn’t be relevant to the case.
Here’s How FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s Trial May Play Out
FTX founder and onetime CEO Sam Bankman-Fried will stand trial in just under two weeks to defend himself against allegations he deliberately committed fraud and conspired to defraud crypto investors and customers in FTX and Alameda Research. CoinDesk spoke to several legal experts about how the case may proceed.
Breaking Down the Infamous Alameda Balance Sheet
The infamous balance sheet of Sam Bankman-Fried’s trading firm, Alameda Research, served as the basis for a Nov. 2, 2022, story by CoinDesk’s Ian Allison. The article raised questions about how sturdy the company’s financial underpinnings were – and, by extension, how safe Bankman-Fried’s better-known crypto exchange FTX was. For the protection of our sources we are not publishing the document itself but rather describing its contents – in finer detail than ever before.
The SBF Trial: How Did We Get Here?
Sam Bankman-Fried stands accused of committing wire fraud and conspiracy to commit several other types of frauds. His once-mighty crypto exchange, FTX, collapsed in dramatic fashion nearly a year ago, shedding billions in value. And in two weeks, he’ll begin his effort to convince a jury of his peers that he didn’t commit any of many alleged crimes while running the company.