COOPERATING WITNESS

Bankman-Fried’s Ex-Lover Admits They Lied About Financial Shenanigans

Caroline Ellison, who was once romantically involved with the FTX founder, is cooperating with prosecutors.

Caroline Ellison, former CEO of Alameda Research—the crypto trading firm founded by her one-time romantic partner Sam Bankman-Fried—admitted to a judge on Monday that she and other execs knowingly lied about financial shenanigans at Alameda and at Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange FTX. “We prepared certain quarterly balance sheets that concealed the extent of Alameda's borrowing and the billions of dollars in loans that Alameda had made to FTX executives and to related parties,” she said during a plea hearing, according to a transcript released on Friday. Ellison apologized and said she knew the conduct was illegal. She added that she “agreed with Mr. Bankman-Fried and others not to publicly disclose the true nature of the relationship between Alameda and FTX.” Bankman-Fried faces an eight-count indictment; he remains under home detention at his parents’ California house as part of a $250 million bond agreement.