by Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book Substack
SDNY COURTHOUSE, Oct 11 – For US v Bankman-Fried, after more than a day of jury selection, late morning on October 4 the twelve and six alternate were selected. Inner City Press live tweeted the voir dire here and more below
With Caroline Ellison on the witness stand on Wednesday, October 11 questioning turned to FTX's China bribe. Inner City Press live tweeted thread:
AUSA: Did you speak in coded terms?
Ellison: Yes. When we gave a large bribe to China - our accounts were frozen in a money laundering investigation.
AUSA: How much was frozen in China? Ellison: $1 billion. Sam wanted to find ways to address it.
AUSA: How were they unfrozen? Ellison: Alameda paid a bribe to Chinese government officials SBF: Objection, move to strike. Judge Kaplan: I will strike that
AUSA: OK, who was involved? Ellison: Constance, and David Ma AUSA: Why were they involved?
Ellison: They were Chinese. We tried to hire a lawyer there. It didn't work. We used other people's accounts. Ryan Salame told me. But it didn't work either
Ellison: David Ma said we should try his way to unfreeze the accounts. Sam agreed. But Handi disagreed. Sam told her to shut the f*ck up.
AUSA: What did you think Ma's way was?
SBF's lawyer Cohen: Objection! Calls for speculation. Judge Kaplan: Sustained.
Ellison: Sam said Ma had found a way to get our accounts unfrozen, if we just sent to these crypto addresses, $100 million... Thai prostitutes... It was November of 2021.
AUSA: Did you know who the recipient was? Ellison: No AUSA: Did you have a belief? SBF's lawyer: Objection! Sidebar
After sidebar: Judge Kaplan: Jurors, the defendant is not charged in this case with bribery of Chinese officials [Inner City Press note: Thanks to Bahamas]
Judge: It is offered for motive. W AUSA: How were you told to pay? Ellison: Signal, with Sam Trabucco
Ellison: There was talk about the FCPA AUSA: What's that? SBF's lawyer Cohen: Objection!
Judge Kaplan: FCPA is not charged here. Ellison: It's the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
AUSA: What's in this chat? Ellison: Sam wrote that Handi was being "pretty shitty." Then Sam Trabucco asked, Did her father just turn us in. Sam replied, LOL.
AUSA: What's that? Ellison: Laughing out loud.
AUSA: Here you wrote, Negative $150 million from the thing - what was the thing?
Ellison: The bribe to China
More on this on Substack here
Back on October 10, after testimony from Caroline Ellison (and after she got in the wrong car), Team SBF filed that "the significant appreciation in Anthropic since last year reflects this important context and is relevant to testimony that the Government has elicited from Ms. Ellison concerning expected value analyses." Full letter on Patreon here.
Inner City Press live tweeted the voir dire and now, more on Substack here
and all on Patreon here
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