Testimony From Caroline Ellison: SBF Accused of Bribing Chinese Officials with 150 Million Dollars to Release Frozen Funds

Crypto News- Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research and a former romantic partner of FTX founder Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried, made explosive allegations during her recent courtroom testimony. She asserted that SBF had paid millions of dollars in bribes to Chinese officials to unlock frozen funds held in local exchanges.

Testimony From Caroline Ellison: SBF Accused of Bribing Chinese Officials with 150 Million Dollars to Release Frozen Funds

During her testimony, Ellison further revealed that SBF had instructed her and other FTX employees to erase all related messages sent through the encrypted messaging app Signal.

Before resorting to bribery, Ellison explained that they had initially attempted to retain a local lawyer in China to facilitate negotiations with the government. When these legal efforts proved fruitless, Bankman-Fried reportedly made unconventional attempts to access the locked funds. This involved using wallets associated with “other people’s accounts,” including accounts that belonged to Thai sex workers. The strategy revolved around conducting imbalanced trades between these accounts to generate profits and enable fund withdrawals.

Ellison described the process, stating, “On OKX, we made several accounts using the IDs of different people who I believe were Thai prostitutes, and we tried to basically have our main account lose money and have those other accounts make money, so do very imbalanced trades between the two accounts so those other accounts would be able to make money and withdraw it.”

It’s worth noting that while these allegations have emerged, SBF’s trial primarily revolves around seven charges of fraud, with the charges related to bribing Chinese officials set to be addressed in a separate trial scheduled for March 2024. SBF has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Caroline Ellison is expected to return on October 12 for cross-examination by SBF’s lawyer, Mark Cohen.