Sam Bankman-Fried's ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison confronted the disgraced crypto titan in court Tuesday, telling jurors that he bears the blame for deciding to steal billions of dollars in FTX customer funds.
In Manhattan federal court, Ellison said in her highly anticipated testimony at a trial where Bankman-Fried faces criminal fraud charges stemming from the disappearance of $8 billion from his now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange.
The couple, both 28 and 28, also set the record straight on why their on-and-off relationship with the fallen crypto king, 31, ended - accusing him of being emotionally distant and not paying enough attention to their relationship during their time living together in a $35 million Bahamas penthouse.
A Stanford-educated math whiz said the pair first slept together in the fall of 2018 and went on to date for about a year, from summer 2020 to summer 2021.
During the entire affair, Bankman-Fried was also my boss at work, which created some awkward situations, Ellison testified.
Bankman-Fried - who was prone to crunching the numbers on every aspect of his life - bizarrely boasted while they were dating that there was a '5 percent chance that he would become president some day, Mr. Ellison told the court.
As she enters the packed courtroom, Ellison didn't make eye contact with her former flame, wearing thin rectangular glasses, a mauve dress and a gray blazer.
When Ellison asked her how she knew the former crypto golden boy, she said they dated for a couple of years, and later specified that the relationship blossomed on and off between the summer of 2020 and the spring of 2022.
Ellison was then asked whether she committed crimes as the CEO of Bankman-Fried's crypto hedge fund Alameda - which the feds say stole $8 billion of FTX users' deposits to pay off lenders.
Sassoon asked Ellison to describe Bankman-Fried's involvement in the alleged scheme.
Despite their whirlwind romance, Ellison testified that Bankman-Fried did not increase her $200,000 base salary after appointing her to run Alameda as co-chief executive in October 2021 - while the pair were on a 'break', Ellison said.
She testified that Ellison had received a $20 million bonus from the government as he was heading the fund. But that amount, though staggering, is far less than what Bankman-Fried paid himself and FTX co-founder Gary Wang during the same time period.
Bankman-Fried also denounced Ellison's request to own a portion of Alameda even after she took over as sole CEO and continued calling in the fund's big decisions - including to use FTX customer funds without disclosing it, she testified.
Ellison said he was confident that the decision would have no impact on the future of the U.S. economy.
First of all, Ellison had a bit of trouble identifying Bankman-Fried, who has shed his signature outfit of a T-shirt and cargo shorts for a suit and his unruly hairstyle for a new, shorter hairdo.
After standing up from her witness chair and looking around for a full minute, she finally picks out her ex-beau sitting with his lawyers at the defense table.
He's over there, wearing a suit, she said, gesturing at her former lover with her hand.
He walked left by Bankman-Fried to leave the courtroom for a lunch break and at the end of the day Tuesday.
Bankman-Fried stared straight ahead and didn't make eye contact with her.
The latest FTX insider to testify against Bankman-Fried, Ellison, is a former FTX insider.
Wang, who has also pleaded guilty to fraud charges and is cooperating with the feds, testified that Bankman-Fried directed him to write computer code allowing Alameda to withdraw 'unlimited' FTX user funds, with consumers left in the dark.
The former FTX developer, Adam Yedidia, told jurors that he resigned days after texting his former boss, when he discovered that the firm repaid its creditors through customer deposits.
Yedidia testified in court that he testified.
James Ellison will resume her testimony on Wednesday.