The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has attributed a leak of Caroline Ellison’s personal diary excerpts, recently featured in a New York Times piece, to her ex-lover, Sam Bankman-Fried.
Caroline Ellison, previously in a romantic relationship with SBF, was the chief of the quantitative trading company Alameda Research during the implicated period.
How did SBF’s lover’s diaries leak?
Alleged disclosure of Ellison’s diary by SBF, currently confined to his parents’ California estate on a $250 million bail, faced more sensational allegations this week.
“Bankman-Fried’s dissemination of Caroline Ellison’s reflections to a journalist at the New York Times implicates the primary considerations of Rule 23.1. Sharing materials pertaining to the ‘testimony or credibility of future witnesses’ implies a strong possibility of prejudicing a fair trial and the due administration of justice.”
US prosecutors on Ellison’s diary leak
These disclosed diary entries portray Ellison sympathetically, revealing her self-perceived inadequacy to manage Alameda Research and her sense of relief concerning the impending downfall of both Alameda and FTX.
“The fact that the defendant provided documents to the authors of the article is clear. When the government was made aware of the impending publication of this article earlier this week, the defense counsel confirmed that the defendant had indeed met in person with one of the authors and had made a disclosure,”
the DoJ reported.
The DoJ is pursuing an order that restricts the public release of extrajudicial statements by Bankman-Fried and others that may “potentially compromise a fair trial by an unbiased jury.”
Other lawsuits against FTX
The lawsuit, steered by John J. Ray III, a former administrator of the collapsed Enron, was lodged with the bankruptcy court in Delaware, listing former executive associates Caroline Ellison, Zixiao ‘Gary’ Wang, and Nishad Singh alongside Bankman Fried as defendants.
The charges against Bankman Fried and his team are extensively detailed. The group stands accused of misdirecting as much as US$8bn of FTX customers’ capital via sister company Alameda Research.
Having confessed to a conspiracy to perpetrate wire fraud, Ellison is anticipated to stand as a witness against Bankman-Fried, her ex-partner and superior, as his trial begins in October.
Wang and Singh have also admitted to fraud-related offenses, acknowledging their roles in the alleged multibillion-dollar scam.