Ellison gave his first public account of his actions throughout a December 19 plea listening to in Manhattan federal court docket. “I knew it was fallacious,” she stated, in response to a transcript of the listening to.

Bankman-Fried, 30, is accused of orchestrating a year-long fraud through which he used billions of {dollars} in FTX consumer funds for private bills and high-risk bets by way of Alameda, the buying and selling home sister to the cryptocurrency alternate.

Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang, who additionally appeared at a listening to Dec. 19, pleaded responsible to fraud prices and are cooperating with federal prosecutors in Manhattan.

Alameda’s “limitless line of credit score”

“From 2019 to 2022, I knew Alameda had entry to a borrowing facility on FTX.com, the cryptocurrency alternate run by Mr. Bankman-Fried,” Ellison stated, including, “In sensible phrases , this association allowed Alameda to entry an infinite line of credit score with out being required to publish collateral, with out having damaging balances and with out being topic to margin calls on FTX.com’s liquidation protocols.

Ellison stated, “I understood that if Alameda’s FTX accounts had massive damaging balances in a selected forex, that meant Alameda was borrowing funds that FTX clients had deposited on the alternate.”

She stated she and Bankman-Fried agreed to hide this association from lenders and made false monetary statements to cover the quantity of Alameda’s mortgage.

Wang, throughout his plea listening to, stated he was “ordered” to make code adjustments to the FTX platform that he knew would give Alameda particular privileges, and that misrepresentations had been made to clients and buyers.

“I do know what I used to be doing was fallacious,” Wang stated.