Lawyers for Sam Bankman-Fried have confirmed that he shared documents and spoke to The New York Times for a story about his former lover and one-time CEO of Alameda Research, Caroline Ellison. However, they deny any wrongdoing and accuse US prosecutors of misconstruing the incident.

The US Department of Justice has accused former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried of leaking the private diary of Caroline Ellison, a former colleague who is now cooperating with the prosecution as a key witness in the DOJ's case against Bankman-Fried. The DOJ alleges that Bankman-Fried leaked the diary contents to a New York Times reporter in an attempt to discredit Ellison and advance his defense through the press. The government's complaint claims that the leak was an extrajudicial move that could potentially interfere with the jury and witnesses lined up to testify against him. Bankman-Fried, who is currently under house arrest, faces a long prison sentence if convicted and his trial is set to begin in October.

New details have emerged about Caroline Ellison, the CEO of crypto hedge fund Alameda Research, who was involved in the fund mismanagement that led to the collapse of FTX. Documents accessed by The New York Times reveal that Ellison was aware of the situation months before it unfolded in November 2022. She reportedly wrote in her personal notes that she was "unhappy and overwhelmed" with her job as CEO of Alameda. The FTX collapse had a significant impact on cryptocurrency prices, and the management is currently facing several lawsuits over allegations of fund mismanagement.

FTX company insiders including Sam Bankman-Fried, former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison, Bankman-Fried's father Joseph Bankman, as well as Gary Wang and Nishad Singh have been served subpoenas by bankruptcy administrators.

Set to appear in court in the first days of January to enter a plea deal, Bankman-Fried is "unlikely to receive a favorable deal from prosecutors," argued Mark Kasten, counsel in Buchanan Ingersoll and Rooney’s Blockchain and Crypto Assets practice group.  

Commonly known as the “Wolf of Wall Street,” Jordan Belfort said that SBF was “done” and that the implosion of the FTX ecosystem was largely fuelled by the amphetamine use of Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research, who was arrested alongside SBF.

The guilty pleas made by former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang are “game changers for the case against Sam Bankman-Fried," the former FTX CEO who is now facing multiple criminal charges, Ian McGinley, a partner at Akin Group, told CoinDesk TV’s “First Mover” on Tuesday.

Caroline Ellison, the former Chief Executive Officer of Alameda Research, pleaded guilty recently, admitting that she was aware of the activities that were taking place from 2019 to 2022.

The goal of this article is to present an easy-to-follow, fact-based timeline highlighting the most important events in the story starting with the very beginning, by briefly covering the reason for the collapse.

The ex-Alameda CEO’s testimony details that she was fully aware from 2019 to 2022, that Alameda Research had access to a special borrowing facility that allowed the company to maintain an unlimited line of credit with zero collateral. The ‘borrowing facility,’ according to Ellison, was FTX’s customer funds.