Just as Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison’s testimony finished on the third day, another Alameda executive, Christian Drappi – a former software engineer at Alameda Research, – came forward to testify in the SBF trial.
As a team member, Drappi was present in a team meeting that Caroline hosted after FTX exchange’s liquidity crisis came to the spotlight in November 2022. Drappi’s testimony revolves around the recording of this team meeting that was secretly recorded by an Alameda employee who joined the firm just a couple of days before it crashed.
Prosecutors shared the recorded audio clip with the jury, in which Caroline could be heard saying that Alameda borrowed funds from FTX, which led to the exchange being short of user funds and an eventual FTX crash.
The recording goes further with Drappi asking if there is any plan to pay back FTX creditors, where Caroline replies that “FTX was trying to raise money in order to do this,” which ultimately failed. She also said that FTX allowed Alameda to borrow user funds “as far as I know” in the meeting.
Drappi testified that the fundraising takes place when there is something exciting going on with the company and “not to fill a hole in the balance sheet,” referring to Alameda’s finance reports.
While the recording was brought-in to defend Caroline’s credibility in front of the jury, it has slammed back her suspicious acts, which reveal otherwise. The recording reveals that she admitted to crimes before she was personally interested in doing so.
It was heard from the audio clip that when an Alameda employee spoke to Caroline and said, “I am sure it wasn’t fun,” to which she replied, “I mean, it was kind of fun,” while letting out a louder laugh.
Also Read: SBF Trial Update: Defense Attorney Cross-examines Caroline
