{"id":85623,"date":"2023-10-12T11:28:10","date_gmt":"2023-10-12T08:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=85623"},"modified":"2025-09-13T00:27:36","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T21:27:36","slug":"former-alameda-chief-cites-the-things-that-made-sam-bankman-fried-lose-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/former-alameda-chief-cites-the-things-that-made-sam-bankman-fried-lose-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Alameda chief cites the things that made Sam Bankman-Fried ‘lose it’."},"content":{"rendered":"

In continuation of her testimony<\/a>, former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison told the court about attempts to hide the hole in the firm’s balance sheet, a list of things that make Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) ‘lose it’ and possible bribery of a Chinese official. According to transcripts by journalist Inner City Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ellison’s Hard Work<\/strong><\/h2>\n

According to SBF’s former girlfriend, she prepared seven different versions of balance-sheet tables detailing Alameda’s finances for Genesis, the lender. Her task was to conceal a $9.9 billion hole in the balance sheet.<\/p>\n

The situation arose in June 2022, when the company was trying to raise investments just months before collapse<\/a>. At that time the firm had already borrowed from FTX about $15 billion, including customer deposits.<\/p>\n

Ellison again testified that she manipulated the data at the instruction of FTX’s founder.<\/p>\n

\n

\u00abHe told me to come up with alternative ways of presenting the information. SBF wanted me to hide some details of our balance sheet. [\u2026] I did not intend to lie, but I presented options to Sam and let him decide\u00bb, said the former Alameda head.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Of all the proposed presentations, he chose the one that did not disclose the hole in the budget, Ellison clarified.<\/p>\n

During questioning she also said that she kept and regularly updated a ‘list of things that make Sam angry’. It included questions about the purchase of Snapchat and investments from Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.<\/p>\n

SBF also lamented that regulators were not taking ‘tough measures against Binance’. He saw the development of this scenario as ‘the best potential way to increase FTX’s market share’.<\/p>\n

Thai Escorts and Bribes<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Ellison said that in 2021 Alameda accounts on Huobi and OKX exchanges were frozen as part of a Chinese government money-laundering investigation involving the company’s counterparty.<\/p>\n

At that time, Bankman-Fried was the firm’s CEO. To unlock the assets he hired local lawyers to negotiate with authorities, but to no avail.<\/p>\n

Then SBF decided to resort to various trading strategies. According to Ellison, his boss created several accounts that were labeled as ‘Thai prostitutes’.<\/p>\n

He traded from these accounts, taking positions opposite to those on the blocked accounts. Thus, while the main account was losing money, the ‘escort traders’ were making money.<\/p>\n

Another Alameda employee proposed bribing a Chinese official. Bankman-Fried was initially opposed, but then supported the proposal. Ultimately the accounts were unfrozen, and Ellison suggested the bribery scenario.<\/p>\n

Sam’s Hair<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The disheveled appearance in court and SBF’s short haircut was a calculated PR strategy, says<\/a> his former girlfriend.<\/p>\n

Ellison explained that SBF called his hair ‘very valuable’. Since the start of his trading career at Jane Street, he has received higher bonuses ‘because of his haircut’.<\/p>\n

According to the former Alameda CEO, the founder of the collapsed exchange was trying to create an image of an ‘eccentric pioneer of the cryptocurrency market’. Bankman-Fried told reporters that he drove an old Toyota Corolla. But before these statements he rode in an expensive corporate car, Ellison added.<\/p>\n

Court documents show that SBF prepared for the Alameda shutdown as early as September 2022<\/a>. He even drafted a post for X, which investigators found.<\/p>\n

\n

\u00abWe came. We saw. We explored\u00bb, was how the introduction began.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Bankman-Fried described Alameda Research as one of his ‘largest successes, then the biggest failures, and then successes again’.<\/p>\n

He called the company ‘the only link supporting the ecosystem’ and ‘a buyer who is ready to buy when no one else intends to’.<\/p>\n

\n

[Alameda] became a major global source of liquidity, leadership and support for the entire ecosystem. And, you know, from time to time we did good deals,’ Bankman-Fried listed the company\u2019s virtues before its potential shutdown.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

As reported, on October 3 hearings<\/a> began in the SBF case. He faces charges on seven counts, including conspiracy to commit fraud.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison described attempts to hide the hole in the balance sheet, a list of things that make Sam Bankman-Fried ‘lose it’, and possible bribery of a Chinese official.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":85624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1435,1162,1236,1150,1403],"class_list":["post-85623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-alameda-research","tag-court-cases","tag-ftx","tag-news-plus","tag-sam-bankman-fried"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"25","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85623"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85625,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85623\/revisions\/85625"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}