Sam Bankman-Fried’s Ex-Girlfriend Blamed Him for FTX Collapse, Court Documents Show

Caroline Ellison, ex-girlfriend of disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, said he was the one who made the decision to use customer funds in a last ditch attempt to keep the company’s hedge fund afloat, according to court documents filed Monday.

Ellison was CEO of Alameda Research, the affiliate trading firm to cryptocurrency exchange and hedge fund FTX. Both companies, founded by Bankman-Fried, filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, 2022.

Two days before that date, according to court documents, Ellison was recorded at an "all-hands" meeting with employees, which followed the announcement of a tentative deal for rival cryptocurrency exchange Binance to acquire FTX — a proposal that Binance quickly scrapped. 

In the recording, Ellison is heard telling employees that Alameda “will likely wind down once we can, like, repay all of our creditors and sort of wind down a bunch of our, like, whatever remaining obligations we have,” the documents said. Ellison started as Alameda’s CEO in March 2022.

When pressed about who made the decision to use user deposits, Ellison replied: “Um … Sam, I guess,” according to the filing.

The prosecution is looking to put forward Ellison's personal notes and to-do lists as evidence, which include information about the financial health of Alameda and its liabilities to FTX, court documents say.

Among those notes is a list she made titled “Things Sam is Freaking Out About,” that includes details of conversations she had with Bankman-Fried about his top business concerns, such as Alameda’s trading hedges, bad press about the relationship between Alameda and FTX, and fundraising.

Ellison pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering in December. She is expected to testify at Bankman-Fried’s trial, which is scheduled to begin Oct. 2 in Manhattan federal court.

FTX was valued at $32 billion in early 2022 and was one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world. 

Bankman-Fried was initially hit with eight criminal charges in December, in which he is accused of stealing billions of dollars from FTX customers while misleading investors and lenders. Prosecutors recently added allegations that he conspired to commit bank fraud and bribe a Chinese official, bringing the total number of charges against him to 13.

A federal judge in June denied Bankman-Fried’s request to have some of the criminal charges thrown out.

Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang pleaded guilty in December to the various charges brought against them, including wire fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud.