bankman Freed's ex-girlfriend is back on the witness stand facing cross-examination from the disgraced FTX Founders lawyers that's right Caroline Ellison repeatedly told jurors over the last two days that bankman freed was The Mastermind behind the crimes that led to the company's downfall Ellison previously ran FTX sister hedge fund Alam research now she pleaded guilty to several charges as part of her plea deal and is cooperating with the prosecution the 28-year-old testified that bankman freed directed a $100 million bribe to Chinese officials CBS News National correspondent Erol Barnett joins us now here in studio 57 you've
been covering this trial um arrol Ellison's testimony has been very emotional she teared up quite a bit she's really though talking about how she was somehow you know directed to and she's the actor that's doing it all but I also read you know text messages have been erased that really put a bankman freed in the conversation with her saying do this y so how hard will that be to connect him even though we're hearing this emotional testimony from this person who knew him very well yeah well great to see you both um she Ellison cried
when she revealed that when this was all public and their spreadsheets that had been um fudged were released she felt a sense of relief that the lying had could finally stop the two big things that have jumped out to me about her testimony and again she has already pleaded guilty to these seven charges and she's saying Sam bankman free told me to do it all which is um why this is so crucial her testimony suggests the extent he was willing to go to fudge the numbers when the company was backwards with its funds he according
to her paid $100 million to uh China Chinese officials to free up cryptocurrency they had in China he was willing crafted a scheme to have TI sex workers use their identities to create accounts on Alam researchers platform as another way of fudging numbers and he was also open to having Muhammad bin Salman the Saudi Crown Prince invest in FTX and buy shares as well she also said his identity the long hair the scraggly shirt and shorts was all part of an orchestrated effort to make himself seem like a crypto genius and someone interesting people could
trust all of it she said was uh fraudulent and part of of this conspiracy I'm wondering how persuasive her testimony is because she was saying she was corrupted by bankman freed but she was the head of Alama and from looking over all of uh the court notes yesterday that's where a lot of this problem like that's where the problems began they were losing money and so they were taking money from FTX to promp up her organization uh talk to us about why they were losing so much money and um and whether her her status as
the ex-girlfriend who was also the head of this this organization if that's going to persuade jurors yeah it's all about what the jurors think it's um three uh 2/3 women and they're watching all of this the judge has consistently admonished the defense though for their objections and the sidebars they keep trying to take so if you're the jury you're kind of trusting less what the defense says and more what the prosecution says you know why so much money what was driving s SPF he is a member of this uh philosophy called effective altruism you'll hear
this a lot it's in Silicon Valley it's in Berkeley it's kind of um emerging among investors and it means doing everything you can to make the most amount of money to bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people um it was coined by William mcal someone s bman freed always followed and listened to he donated to lots of companies and he was philanthropic but she says he was willing to lie to get there he was willing to steal to get there and for those reasons um she is you know now testifying
against him in 30 seconds if you could what is the defense trying to do as they question her right now they're trying to do what um Lana pointed to they're trying to say that look she was part of this scheme how how are we going to blame just him um the big question when the prosecution rests is will Sam bankman free testifying his own defense at this point it seems like he has nothing to lose but we shall see very interesting Erol Barnett on the case thank you great to see you guys
