LIVE: Caroline Ellison, Ex-Alameda CEO and SBF’s Ex, Takes the Stand

This is a developing story and will be updated frequently.

NEW YORK — Caroline Ellison, an insider to Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto trading empire who pled guilty to helping orchestrate an alleged $8 billion fraud, has begun testifying against her ex-boyfriend and former colleague.

Ellison, 28, is the government’s highly anticipated star witness in the six-week trial of Bankman-Fried. She was the CEO of Alameda Research, the hedge fund prosecutors say stole billions of dollars from customers of its sister company, the cryptocurrency exchange FTX. (Read the government’s indictment here.)

Her proximity to Bankman-Fried’s business and personal lives is almost certain to give the jury its closest look yet at the decision-making that led to FTX’s epic collapse last November. She has been cooperating with the government since at least December, when she pled guilty to an array of financial crimes stemming from her time at Alameda.

Ellison took the stand Tuesday immediately following testimony from fellow insider Gary Wang, the quiet coder who last week told the court he wrote much of the programming that enabled FTX’s fraud.

Later today or Wednesday, Bankman-Fried’s defense team will likely cross-examine Ellison with an eye toward discrediting her. In his opening argument lead lawyer Mark Cohen said Ellison ignored instructions from Bankman-Fried to place hedges on Alameda’s trading that could have staunched some of its bleeding.

The excitement around her testimony was palpable in the press corps. Reporters began arriving at the Daniel P. Moynihan federal courthouse well before sunrise for a chance to see Ellison in person.

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