Danny is CoinDesk's Managing Editor for Data & Tokens. He owns BTC, ETH and SOL.
So began 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 – albeit in the vaguest of ways.
The specter of their rocky relationship looms over this trial. Sam, the CEO of FTX, years ago picked Caroline, whom he met during his Wall Street days, to help run his crypto hedge fund Alameda in 2021 . At the time they weren’t dating – they were on a break – but they would again, infusing into their massive financial decisions an imbalanced power dynamic that would make any HR department short-circuit. Their affair is the fluttering strand of subway bathroom toilet paper stuck to their heels.
According to the org sheets, Caroline was ultimately in charge of Alameda. But again, that appearance was more of an artifice, she said. Sam, who owned 90% of the company, had anointed her co-CEO because “he thought it was important to separate Alameda and FTX more optically.” In reality, he retained ultimate leverage over his lover and subordinate. Caroline’s pay remained the same even though she had become CEO of a massive trading operation.
Those present to view Ellison’s testimony needed to show up in person – and early. Scoring a spot in the packed courtroom meant queuing outside of the courthouse in New York’s Financial District as early as 4:30 a.m. Tuesday morning.
Defense attorney Christian Everdell had a stronger opening round of questioning on Tuesday than he’s had in the first week of the trial, with fewer interruptions from the prosecution and reprimands from Judge Lewis Kaplan, at least for the first hour of his cross-examination of FTX co-founder and former Chief Technology Officer Gary Wang.
The names suggest the DOJ will continue with its current trend of alternating between witnesses who were financially or otherwise affected by FTX’s collapse and those who were in a position to know more about FTX and Alameda and their internal operations.
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