| In
Bankman-Fried
Trial China
Bribe
Described $100
Million to CCP
Officials
Trabucco in
Loop
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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