SBF, FTX Execs Got Billions In Secret Loans: Ex-Alameda CEO

Sam Bankman-Fried and other FTX executives received billions of dollars in secret loans from the crypto mogul's Alameda Research, the hedge fund's former chief told a judge when she pleaded guilty to her role in the exchange's collapse, Luc Cohen and Tom Hals reported for Reuters.

Photo Insert: Caroline Ellison, former chief executive of Alameda Research and Bankman-Fried’s ex-girlfriend, said she agreed with him to hide from FTX's investors, lenders, and customers that the hedge fund could borrow unlimited sums from the exchange.

Caroline Ellison, former chief executive of Alameda Research and Bankman-Fried’s ex-girlfriend, said she agreed with him to hide from FTX's investors, lenders, and customers that the hedge fund could borrow unlimited sums from the exchange, the unsealed transcript of her Dec. 19 plea hearing showed.

"We prepared certain quarterly balance sheets that concealed the extent of Alameda's borrowing and the billions of dollars in loans that Alameda had made to FTX executives and to related parties," Ellison told US District Judge Ronnie Abrams in Manhattan federal court, according to the transcript.

Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang both pleaded guilty and are cooperating with prosecutors as part of their plea agreements. Their sworn statements offer a preview of how two of Bankman-Fried's former associates might testify at trial against him as prosecution witnesses.

In a separate plea hearing on Dec. 19, Wang said he was directed to make changes to FTX's code to give Alameda special privileges on the trading platform, while being aware that others were telling investors and customers that Alameda had no such privileges.

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