Caroline Ellison points finger at Sam Bankman-Fried, details from day 5 of SBF trial

Caroline Ellison was the witness on the stand on day five of the Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) trial, with the former FTX executive facing charges on seven counts of crimes. The case is heard in a Manhattan court.

Read:  Day three and Day four of the SBF trial here

Caroline Ellison shifts all the blame to SBF

Caroline Ellison had her day in court, a chance to earn her deal with the authorities. She did not hold back! Live updates from Blockworks indicate that Ellison shifted all blame to Bankman-Fried, saying he directed her to commit the crimes.

Admitting to having pleaded guilty to four federal offenses, the former CEO of FTX’s sister firm Alameda Research took several billion dollars worth of FTX customer money for investments and to cover its loans. Worse, she indicated that SBF established systems to help steal that money [customer funds], by allowing the negative balance feature that overlooked the hedge fund’s $65 billion line of credit.

Allegedly, SBF also asked the witness to send “cooked” balance sheets to dupe investors, adding that the exchange’s liquidity crunch situation began when customers began withdrawing funds from the FTX platform.

In what turned out to be a humorous moment in court, Ellison spent almost one minute cruising her eyes through the courtroom when the court asked her to identify the accused, Sam Bankman-Fried. Specifically, and with a smile, she identified SBF wearing a suit, with speculation that unless her usual self is a jovial individual, the neat hair and official dressing by SBF must have caught her off guard, given the accused was a typical casual dresser with curly kinky hair.