Star witness to take stand in US crypto king trial

The star witness in the trial of Sam Bankman-Fried arrived at a New York federal court on Tuesday where she is expected to give damning evidence against the one time crypto wunderkind.

Caroline Ellison, Bankman-Fried's former business partner and girlfriend, is expected to give key testimony that will describe how he committed fraud on a massive scale.

The 31-year-old Bankman-Fried, known as "SBF," has been charged with seven counts of fraud, embezzlement and criminal conspiracy, and if convicted could face a de facto life sentence of more than 100 years in prison.

In November 2022, his cryptocurrency exchange platform imploded, unable to cope with massive withdrawal requests from customers panicked to learn that some of FTX's funds had been committed to risky operations by Alameda Research, Bankman-Fried's personal hedge fund.

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Ellison was CEO at Alameda and has pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud charges and agreed to cooperate with the prosecution.

She is expected to give details on how the Alameda investment company used the FTX platform to cover massive losses, even as Bankman-Fried was assuring clients that their money was safe.

But Bankman-Fried's lawyers will argue that their client had little handle on the inner workings of Alameda's business and point blame at Ellison for the alleged fraud.

While awaiting trial in August, Bankman-Fried was ordered out of house arrest and jailed after prosecutors alleged that the former FTX boss had leaked Ellison's diary entries to the New York Times.

Zixiao "Gary" Wang, another former close associate of Bankman-Fried's, on Friday described his FTX co-founder as willing to break the law and lie to enable the company and Alameda to post strong growth.

Source: AFP