Then, over 4 frantic days in November, FTX and its sister hedge fund, Alameda Research, imploded, with purchasers unable to withdraw better than $8 billion in deposits. The companies filed for chapter, and Mr. Bankman-Fried was charged with counts along with securities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. A rely accusing him of violating advertising and marketing marketing campaign finance regulation was eventually dropped, along with a handful of various costs, though all could be revived at a second trial subsequent 12 months.
Plenty of his closest allies have turned on him. Caroline Ellison, Alameda’s chief govt and Mr. Bankman-Fried’s on-and-off girlfriend, pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the prosecution. She was joined by two co-founders of FTX, Gary Wang and Nishad Singh, who admitted to conspiring with Mr. Bankman-Fried to defraud purchasers. A fourth high-level govt, Ryan Salame, moreover pleaded accountable, with out agreeing to cooperate.
After his arrest, Mr. Bankman-Fried was confined to his dad and mother’ residence in Palo Alto, Calif., the place he entertained mates and had a pickleball court docket docket put in throughout the yard. In August, Select Kaplan revoked these privileges and despatched him to the Metropolitan Detention Center after he shared just a few of Ms. Ellison’s personal writings with The New York Events.
Ms. Ellison is poised to be an important decide on the trial. She, Mr. Wang and Mr. Singh have been all shut buddies with Mr. Bankman-Fried and lived collectively in a five-bedroom penthouse throughout the Bahamas, the place FTX had its headquarters. Nevertheless even inside that tight circle, Ms. Ellison had distinctive entry — and an prolonged romantic historic previous alongside together with her boss which may create one of many essential dramatic and personal moments of the trial.
In court docket docket filings, prosecutors have previewed among the many proof they plan to present, along with notes that Ms. Ellison took at conferences with Mr. Bankman-Fried, along with spreadsheets that “saved observe of illicit money flows.” Prosecutors have moreover lined up testimony from FTX patrons and purchasers who misplaced money throughout the company’s collapse.
