It’s been a busy week for spotlight-witness Caroline Ellison as she continues her testimony in Sam Bankman-Fried’s ongoing criminal trial.
Per reports of yesterday’s developments in Sam Bankman-Fried’s (SBFs) ongoing criminal case, things just got a lot tastier as key witness Caroline Ellison has revealed that her ex-boyfriend tried to use identities linked to Thai sex workers to unfreeze funds before bribing Chinese officials for millions.
The funds in question were frozen on Huobi and OKA, two of the biggest crypto exchanges in China. In inferring that Chinese authorities had their act together more than those in the US, such freezing came amid a money laundering probe back in 2021.
In an effort to resolve the matter, Ellison claims that SBF sought the help of a local Chinese lawyer. However when this avenue of action didn’t gain any traction, he then opted to use ‘other people’s accounts’ to access the funds, including the wallet of a Thai sex worker.
“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”- Caroline Ellison.
When it comes to how the accounts- said to be worth upwards of $1 billion - were eventually unfrozen, Ellison is under the impression that Alameda paid a bribe of $150 million
That’s basically a 15% premium on accessing your funds… a humongous hike that may suggest how desperate SBF was to access the funds.
Per Inner City Press, these were the exact statements made by Ellison:
AUSA: What does this say?
— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) October 11, 2023
Ellison: "Sam Bankman-Fried set the disappearing message time for 1 week."
AUSA: Did you speak in coded terms?
Ellison: Yes. When we gave a large bribe to China - our accounts were frozen in a money laundering investigation.
Additionally, and to cover tracks, Ellison also revealed that SBF ordered FTX employees to delete all messages relating to the matter that were sent on encrypted messaging app Signal.
Interestingly enough, SBF’s bribing of Chinese officials isn’t included in the 7 charges he’s currently facing, however the matter will most certainly be brought up in March when he faces six additional charges relating to bank fraud and foreign bribery conspiracies.
When it comes to Ellison, she is now due to return to court on Thursday October 12th to face a cross-examination from SBF’s lawyer Mark Cohen.
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This article is intended for educational purposes and is not financial advice.
