SBF trial witness list revealed: former lovers, colleagues, allies

Written by: Helene Braun, Elizabeth Napolitano, Coindesk

Compiled by: Wang Eryu, PANews

FTX founder SBF is on trial this week, as the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange is accused of stealing billions of dollars.

Key witnesses include former colleagues and friends, particularly Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang, both closely associated with FTX and Alameda Research. Ellison, SBF's former girlfriend, has a deep understanding of FTX's internal operations and has admitted to misleading behavior.

Witnesses like Nishad Singh and Wang held significant positions at FTX and Alameda and have pleaded guilty to related charges.

It has been nearly a year since the global cryptocurrency exchange FTX collapsed, and its founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has seen his reputation tarnished. This week, he will attempt to persuade a jury of his peers to grant him freedom. But first, we will hear testimony from some of his close friends.

During the six-week trial, prosecutors will delve into various testimonies, internal documents, emails, and mountains of evidence, revealing clues about the alleged theft of billions of dollars in customer funds by this cryptocurrency exchange. The most compelling evidence may come from the prosecutors' witnesses: SBF's former friends and allies.

Several of SBF's former colleagues and friends will testify against the once-crypto mogul after reaching plea agreements with the U.S. Department of Justice, including his ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison and childhood friend Gary Wang, both deeply involved in the daily operations of FTX and its quantitative trading fund Alameda Research. Two other individuals, whose names have not yet been disclosed, may testify after receiving immunity, indicating they may also have connections to the exchange. The U.S. Department of Justice also announced last weekend that prosecutors plan to call former FTX customers and investors from around the world as witnesses during the trial.

Witnesses

Caroline Ellison: Former Alameda CEO, pleaded guilty

Caroline Ellison is one of the most prominent witnesses expected to stand against SBF. Court documents indicate that as the former head of the cryptocurrency hedge fund Alameda Research, which is linked to FTX, she will reveal the relationship between the two companies and the amount of FTT held by FTX. Additionally, due to her past romantic relationship with the FTX founder, she may also bring some salacious gossip. She is reportedly one of the few insiders who truly understands the inner workings of FTX.

Both of Ellison's parents are economists at MIT, and she met SBF at their previous employer, the Wall Street trading firm Jane Street. The two reconnected in October 2021, when SBF persuaded her to join his crypto company at a café in the Bay Area.

In December 2022, shortly after the collapse of FTX, Ellison admitted during a guilty plea hearing that she intentionally misled lenders and obtained "unlimited credit" through FTX for her then-hedge fund Alameda Research without providing collateral, even though the company did not need the money at the time.

Ellison pleaded guilty to fraud charges and has signed a plea agreement with no tax-related offenses. Her understanding of the alleged sharing of customer funds between FTX and Alameda may become a key point in the trial.

Given her past romantic relationship with the former crypto mogul, she is also considered one of the people who knows SBF best on a personal level. According to her diary, their relationship ended in February 2022, and SBF leaked that diary to The New York Times in August. (Related reading: FTX Executive Latest Insider Exposé: SBF "Maliciously" Leaked Ex-Girlfriend's Private Diary, Planned to Buy Island for "Refuge")

In her diary, she mainly wrote about her feelings for SBF and how their on-again, off-again relationship affected her work at Alameda Research, stating, "The closeness of the relationship with [him] feels painful."

Although she did not mention any living arrangements in her diary, it is known that Ellison and other FTX employees lived with SBF in a $40 million penthouse in Albany, Bahamas.

This makes Ellison one of the few insiders who seems to have been closely associated with SBF both professionally and emotionally, giving her a unique perspective to discuss the former FTX founder's ethical conduct as a businessman and his personal character traits.

Nishad Singh: FTX Engineering Director, pleaded guilty

Nishad Singh is another early employee of Alameda Research, which was headquartered in an apartment in Berkeley, California, with only four other employees at the time. Singh had a close relationship with SBF in high school and served as the engineering director at Alameda. Like Ellison, he also lived in the luxurious penthouse in the Bahamas with SBF. After working at Alameda for a year and a half, he became the engineering director of the newly established FTX derivatives exchange, where he had limited responsibilities.

Reports indicate that Singh was one of three people who controlled the keys to FTX's matching engine. The FTX matching engine is the system that facilitates the exchange's processing of buy and sell orders, and those who hold the keys can transfer funds at will. He also knew about FTX lending customer funds to Alameda. Like Ellison, he pleaded guilty in February to six criminal charges, including fraud and conspiracy.

Gary Wang: Co-founder of Alameda Research and FTX, pleaded guilty

Gary Wang is a co-founder of Alameda Research and FTX and SBF's right-hand man. Wang served as the chief technology officer of both companies and is considered a key player at FTX.

Wang also knows SBF well on a personal level; they were math camp partners in high school and roommates at MIT. He was also one of the ten roommates in the penthouse where SBF lived in Nassau. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) stated that Wang "allowed Alameda to maintain essentially unlimited credit at FTX."

In December 2022, Wang pleaded guilty to charges related to the collapse of FTX alongside Ellison.

Andria van der Merwe: Economist specializing in financial market regulatory investigations

Andria van der Merwe's profile on the consulting firm Compass Lexecon's website indicates that she is an economist specializing in complex financial market regulatory investigations. As an expert in financial regulation and market risk, she is expected to provide insights into how SBF and his inner circle allegedly conspired to violate federal securities and commodities laws. She may also testify about the impact of the FTX collapse on the broader financial markets.

Peter Easton: Professor at the University of Notre Dame

Prosecutors say that University of Notre Dame professor Peter Easton will outline the financial condition of Alameda Research and FTX, including the balance sheet issues that led to the collapse of SBF's multi-billion dollar crypto empire. His testimony will discuss how customer funds were held and whether actual bank account balances matched the internal ledger balances of FTX.

Defense Witnesses

Thomas Bishop: Business consultant specializing in forensic investigations and accounting issues

Tom Bishop is a business consultant specializing in forensic investigations and accounting issues. Court documents do not disclose much information about his planned testimony, only indicating that he may discuss the "financial numbers and metrics calculations" of FTX and Alameda based on "publicly available documents and records, including but not limited to Alameda's balance sheet." The defense attorneys stated that they intend to call Bishop to rebut potential testimony from the Department of Justice if necessary.

Brian Kim: Data analysis and forensic expert

Data analysis and forensic expert Brian Kim may discuss internal communications between SBF and employees of FTX and its sister companies. If called to testify, he may provide evidence related to "Slack data and Google Docs, including metadata and file paths," which allegedly could prove that SBF instructed employees to destroy evidence of the company's alleged fraud. Court documents indicate that this data includes "fields listing authors, custodians (S), and viewers (S) of [documents and messages], as well as dates of creation, modification, viewing, saving, and/or deletion." Like Bishop, if called to testify, Kim's focus will also be to rebut the Department of Justice's testimony.

Joseph Pimbley: Financial risk management expert

Financial consultant Joseph Pimbley is an expert in financial risk management. Court documents indicate that he may tell the jury during his testimony that "the software infrastructure of FTX…lacked robustness in its reporting mechanisms, and there was insufficient testing and quality assurance of data integrity and code," which external users like SBF could not see or easily detect. The defense attorney stated that they intend to call him to rebut the testimonies of Wang and Singh.

Andrew Di Wu: Professor of Finance and Technology at the University of Michigan

Andrew Di Wu, a professor of finance and technology at the University of Michigan, may outline to the jury how cryptocurrency exchanges and the underlying blockchain technology operate. Court documents indicate that he may also explain in his testimony the "unique complexities of operating a centralized cryptocurrency exchange, particularly those involving cross-border operations…and the challenges of handling transactions in multiple fiat and cryptocurrencies." The defense claims Di Wu may testify in response to testimony provided by an FBI agent for the prosecution.

Pending Witnesses

As of September 29, several key executives and other individuals closely associated with SBF have not yet been publicly listed as potential witnesses, including several key figures from FTX.

Sam Trabucco: Former Co-CEO of Alameda Research

Before Caroline Ellison became the sole CEO of Alameda Research, she co-held the position with Sam Trabucco, who left after only a year in August 2022. In 2021, he posted on X that he drove Alameda's expansion beyond its initial business, no longer just a market maker for low-volume crypto assets, but into riskier trading areas, leading the company to achieve "huge" profits. In a Wall Street Journal article last year, Trabucco was not listed as one of the executives aware of FTX's transfer of customer funds to Alameda.

Dan Friedberg: Former Chief Compliance Officer of FTX

Daniel Friedberg served as FTX's chief compliance officer from March 2020 to November 2022. He previously had ties to an online poker site involved in a scandal where an estimated $20 million was misappropriated; reports indicate that he told an ally to blame a nameless consultant for the company. He led the cryptocurrency department at Fenwick & West LLP and joined FTX after becoming a partner at the firm.

Reports indicate that last November, he provided federal prosecutors with details about FTX. Reuters reported that although his name was not confirmed, he "is expected to be called as a government witness" during SBF's trial. His attorney did not respond to requests for comment from reporters.

Ryan Salame: Co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, pleaded guilty

Ryan Salame is the co-CEO of FTX's Bahamian subsidiary, FTX Digital Markets, and became the fourth executive in SBF's inner circle to plead guilty to federal charges after reaching a plea agreement this fall.

Campaign finance records show that Salame, at SBF's direction, provided millions of dollars in illegal campaign contributions to dozens of U.S. lawmakers. However, while Salame helped his former boss gain influence on Capitol Hill, he claims he was unaware of the severity of FTX's financial troubles or the crimes charged against its executives. Related reading: (Another former FTX executive pleads guilty, helped SBF secretly fund Republican elections, could face asset forfeiture of up to $1.5 billion)

Reports indicate that Salame has submitted documents related to the FTX collapse to federal prosecutors, but according to The New York Times, he will not testify. A previous court document stated that if called to testify, he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.