FTX founder’s girlfriend Caroline Ellison tells court her actions at collapsed exchange were ‘wrong’
Sam Bankman-Fried’s ex-girlfriend has admitted that what she did “was wrong” as she prepares to potentially testify against the former crypto tycoon in one of America’s biggest ever fraud trials.
Caroline Ellison, 28, told a New York court this week: “I am truly sorry for what I did. I knew that it was wrong.”
Ms Ellison was employed by her ex-boyfriend as chief executive of his cryptocurrency hedge fund Alameda Research.
She has pleaded guilty to defrauding customers of sister business FTX, which collapsed in November owing about $8bn (£6.6bn) to creditors and retail investors.
US regulators and prosecutors charged Mr Bankman-Fried, 30, along with Ms Ellison and FTX’s former chief technology officer Gary Wang, 29, with carrying out a string of frauds that ended with the exchange’s collapse.
Mr Bankman-Fried has denied criminal wrongdoing, asserting in public interviews that FTX’s collapse was because of his poor management rather than deliberate wrongdoing.
A court transcript unsealed on Friday revealed Ms Ellison told a federal judge that she has “worked hard to assist with the recovery of assets for the benefit of customers and to cooperate with the government’s investigation.”
