SBF has angered Caroline Ellison over the FTX crisis
Sam Bankman-Fried blasted his ex-lover Caroline Ellison’s handling of the crisis that ultimately led to the downfall of FTX, saying he felt “claustrophobic” in their relationship, according to a trove of his unsent tweets and other documents .
In writings written while under house arrest, Bankman-Fried reportedly blamed Ellison, who served as CEO of FTX’s sister cryptocurrency hedge fund Alameda Research, for mishandling the crisis that later led to the downfall of his empire The New York Times reported on Thursday.
Bankman-Fried, 31, also criticized his girlfriend, who cried on and off during meetings, and noted that she often clashed with Sam Trabucco, a member of the inner circle who once served as co-CEO at Alameda.
“She continually avoided talking about risk management — and dodged my suggestions — until it was too late,” Bankman-Fried wrote in a document titled “Alameda’s Hedging Failure.”
“Every time I made suggestions to her, she only got worse. I’m sure being an ex-girlfriend didn’t help,” he added.
Bankman-Fried’s relationship with Ellison, 28, will come under scrutiny next month when he faces a federal trial over allegations he defrauded FTX customers of billions of dollars.
Ellison has already pleaded guilty to fraud charges and is expected to be a key witness.
Bankman-Fried sent the personal papers and documents to cryptocurrency industry influencer Tiffany Fong, who later provided them to the New York Times.
In total, the find included around 250 pages of documents, including the text of the extensive 15,000-word Twitter thread.
“He liked that I didn’t work for anyone,” Fong told the outlet. “He thinks I can just come to my own conclusions.”
In a lengthy Twitter thread he wrote but never published, Bankman-Fried wrote about his initial attraction to Ellison, calling her “insanely smart.”
However, the disgraced ex-billionaire revealed that he ultimately felt trapped in their relationship.
Bankman-Fried said their troubled romance ended “the same way most of my relationships end.”
“They want more intimacy, commitment and public visibility than I do,” Bankman-Fried wrote, “and I feel claustrophobic.”
Bankman-Fried wrote that he became increasingly frustrated with what he saw as Ellison’s refusal to follow his instructions to hedge Alameda’s risky trades.
At one point, Bankman-Fried said he sent her a message with “the meanest thing I’ve ever said to her.”
“If Alameda had hedged, it would have remained solvent and would have prevented this whole unfortunate story,” he said.
According to the report, Bankman-Fried would often underscore “a key moment in the narrative” by including a link “to a music video by Alicia Keys, Katy Perry, or Rihanna.”
Representatives for Bankman-Fried and Ellison did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The former FTX boss was also critical of Trabucco, complaining that he “dated a bunch of guys while sailing around the world on a boat” instead of focusing on his work at Alameda.
Trabucco left Alameda just months before his collapse.
Federal authorities allege that Bankman-Fried used FTX customer funds to cover risky bets at Alameda and finance his lavish lifestyle, which included associating with celebrities and politicians and purchasing beachfront properties in the Bahamas, where his crypto assets Exchange had its headquarters.
Bankman-Fried has denied wrongdoing and has pleaded not guilty to a number of charges.
Last month, a federal judge sentenced Bankman-Fried to prison for allegedly leaking Ellison’s personal writings to a New York Times reporter.
In the diary entries, Ellison feared that her contentious relationship with Bankman-Fried would “make things weird in the office” and feared that her multiple breakups would “cause drama.”
In an April 2022 post addressed to Bankman-Fried, Ellison wrote that a previous breakup with him had “significantly reduced my enthusiasm for Alameda.”
