On Thursday, Caroline Ellison, who had formerly been the CEO of Alameda and was the ex-girlfriend of Sam Bankman-Fried, was subjected to cross-examination in the fraud trial of the FTX founder. Ellison recounted her experiences running Alameda, such as her collaboration with former co-CEO Sam Trabucco, who resigned in August of 2022, several months prior to the collapse of the two firms.
On Thursday morning, the cross-examination of Caroline Ellison, CEO of accused fraudster Sam Bankman-Friend's hedge fund Alameda Research and the government's star witness in its case against him, continued in a Manhattan courthouse. Ellison had pleaded guilty to several counts of fraud-related crimes in December and had agreed to cooperate with the prosecution as part of the plea deal. Ellison was subjected to aggressive questioning from Bankman-Friend's lawyer Mark Cohen, who drew the ire of Judge Lewis Kaplan for twice requesting sidebars in an attempt to pursue specific lines of questioning. Throughout the process, Ellison avoided eye contact with the defendant, focusing instead on her hands and flipping her hair to her left shoulder. Part of the cross-examination revolved around her co-CEO with Alameda, Sam Trabucco, and Bankman-Friend's suggestion of bringing on a new co-CEO at the time of Trabucco's departure. Ellison also discussed attempting to hire someone to oversee Alameda's accounting as well as her increased ambition with Bankman-Friend's encouragement. The cross-examination is expected to continue through the morning of Thursday.
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