A week before his surprise arrest in the Bahamas at the behest of New York prosecutors, Sam Bankman-Fried’s ex-girlfriend and former CEO was spotted in the Big Apple stepping out for a coffee.
Caroline Ellison, 28, was seen at a coffee shop in downtown New York City on December 4, just a little over a week before her FTX founder ex was taken into custody in Nassau, and only four days before he was secretly indicted by a grand jury in New York.
Now, it remains unclear if she too may face charges for what prosecutors are calling ‘one of the biggest financial frauds in American history‘.
Ellison was the CEO of Alameda, the crypto investment firm owned by Bankman-Fried that prosecutors say was used to funnel billions of dollars through from FTX, as a ‘personal piggy bank’ for the now disgraced founder.
She is named in the charging documents multiple times, along with other members of SBF’s millennial gang, but has not yet been arrested.
In a warning yesterday however, Damian Williams, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said more charges would be filed in the coming days and weeks.
‘We are not done,’ he said in unequivocal terms, warning that yesterday’s announcement of charges against Bankman-Fried were just the ‘first’ step.
He will remain in custody in the Bahamas until his next court appearance on February 8.
Yesterday, he begged for mercy from a Bahamian magistrate, claiming he couldn’t be put in jail because of he suffers from depression and follows a strict vegan diet.
SBF maintains that the American branch of his crypto-trading platform, FTX US, is solvent and that he would be able to pay ‘everyone back’ who lost money on the international arm, FTX International, if the government unfroze his assets.
The company however filed a Chapter 11 earlier this year which would suggest there is no money.
He claims he was forced into it.
Ellison was the CEO of Alameda and was also FTX’s girlfriend, living with him and some of their friends in the Bahamas.
None of the others involved have yet been charged, including Nishad Singh and Gary Wing, who are both said to have made billions through crypto.
They are all now lying low in the wake of the bombshell charges by both federal prosecutors in New York and the SEC.
