Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison testified during the Sam Bankman-Fried trial that the crypto trading firm paid Chinese officials to unlock their Alameda trading accounts on OKX and Huobi in China. However, Bankman-Fried is not charged with bribery of Chinese officials in this case, and the evidence was presented for limited purposes of displaying trust and confidence as well as motive between Bankman-Fried and Ellison. Ellison testified that Bankman-Fried and Trabucco told her via a Signal chat to make the payments, and the accounts were reopened after she made about $100 million to $150 million in payments of "crypto transfers" to accounts. During the trial, it was revealed that Alameda employees tried various strategies to open the accounts, including getting Thai prostitutes to open accounts on the exchanges, but these efforts were unsuccessful.
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