Sam Bankman-Fried’s ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison confronted the disgraced crypto titan in court Tuesday — matter-of-factly telling jurors that he bears the blame for deciding to steal billions in FTX customer funds.

“He directed me to commit these crimes,” Ellison said in Manhattan federal court, during her highly-anticipated testimony at a trial where Bankman-Fried faces criminal fraud charges stemming from the November 2022 disappearance of $8 billion from his now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange.

Ellison, 28, also set the record straight on why her on-and-off-romance with the fallen crypto king, 31, ended — accusing him of being emotionally distant and not devoting enough attention to their relationship during their time living together inside a $35 million Bahamas penthouse.

“There was a general theme that I sort of wanted more from our relationship,” Ellison told jurors. “I sort of felt like he was distant or not paying attention to me.”

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Sam Bankman-Fried's fraud trial wrapped for the day at around 4:30 p.m. - with his ex Caroline Ellison expected to be back on the stand tomorrow.

Ellison began testifying against the accused crypto crook on Tuesday, telling jurors that Bankman-Fried "directed me to commit these crimes."

Manhattan federal prosecutors said they expect Ellison to testify for all of Wednesday, adding that they'll then call a handful of other witnesses before resting their case.

Bankman-Fried's defense attorneys said they will then need around a week to present their side.

Caroline Ellison's whirlwind romance with accused crypto fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried crumbled after Bankman-Fried failed to devote enough effort to the partnership, Ellison testified this afternoon.

"There was a general theme that I sort of wanted more from our relationship," Ellison told jurors. "I sort of felt like he was distant or not paying attention to me."

Ellison, who is testifying as a government witness after pleading guilty to fraud charges for her role in the alleged scheme to steal billions of dollars from FTX customers, said Tuesday that the pair first slept together in the fall of 2018, and went on to date for about a year, from summer 2020 to summer 2021.

During the entirely of the relationship, Bankman-Fried "was also my boss at work, which created some awkward situations," Ellison testified.

Ellison said they split up then got back together, dating again from fall 2021 until spring 2022.

Despite the romance, Bankman-Fried did not give Ellison a raise from her $200,000 base salary after appointing her to run Alameda Research as co-chief executive in October 2021 while the pair were on a "break," Ellison said.

Bankman-Fried also denied Ellison's request to own any equity in Alameda and continued calling the shots on the fund's big decisions even after Ellison took over as sole CEO, she testified.

"I handled day to day decisions, but for any major decisions I would always run it by Sam," Ellison said.

Eventually, Bankman-Fried gave her 0.5 percent equity of FTX, his now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange, she said on the stand Tuesday. He owned 90 percent.

Sam Bankman-Fried bragged to his ex-girlfriend that there was a slim — yet real — chance that someday he could be elected president, his ex and former business partner testified.

"At one point he said there was a five percent chance that he'd become president some day," said Caroline Ellison shortly after returning to the stand Tuesday as a government witness in Bankman-Fried's blockbuster criminal fraud trial.

"President of what?" asked prosecutor Danielle Sassoon.

"The United States," Ellison responded.

Ellison, who helmed Bankman-Fried's crypto hedge fund Alameda Research, also set the record straight on the timeline of her romance with the disgraced crypto magnate.

The pair first slept together in the fall of 2018, and went on to date for about a year, from summer 2020 to summer 2021. Ellison said they split up then got back together, dating again from fall 2021 until spring 2022.

Sam Bankman-Fried's former lover and business partner Caroline Ellison testified against him Tuesday — matter-of-factly accusing him of orchestrating a scheme to steal billions in customer deposits.

"He directed me to commit these crimes," Ellison testified, wearing glasses, a salmon-colored dress and gray blazer, when a federal prosecutor asked her to describe Bankman-Fried's role in the case.

After Ellison, 28, was sworn in as a witness inside the packed lower Manhattan courtroom, federal prosecutor Danielle Sassoon asked her how she knew the former crypto golden boy.

Ellison responded that they met when she was an intern at the Jane Street trading firm, and that they "dated for a couple of years."

Ellison was then asked whether she committed crimes as the CEO of Bankman-Fried's crypto hedge fund Alameda — which prosecutors say stole $8 billion of FTX users' deposits to pay off lenders.

"Yes," Ellison said.

When asked to specify, she added, "fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud, and money laundering."

Sassoon later asked Ellison to describe Bankman-Fried's involvement.

"He was originally the CEO of Alameda, and after, the owner of Alameda, and he directed me to commit these crimes," Ellison said.

Ellison was then asked to identify Bankman-Fried — who has traded his signature outfit of a T-shirt and cargo shorts and signature unruly hairstyle for a suit and a new, shorter hairdo — in the courtroom.

Ellison stood up, and looked around for a full minute before finally picking Bankman-Fried out at the defense table.

"He's over there, wearing a suit," she said, gesturing toward her former lover.

As Ellison left the courtroom for a lunch break, she walked right by Bankman-Fried, who stared straight ahead and didn't make eye contact with her.

Ellison is expected to resume her testimony at 2 p.m. 

Caroline Ellison, the ex-head of Sam Bankman-Fried’s hedge fund Alameda Research and the fallen crypto king's former on-and-off lover, arrived at Manhattan federal court Tuesday morning in advance of her expected testimony.

Ellison wore a blue cap and sunglasses as she entered the 500 Pearl St. courthouse through a side door.

It was the Stanford-educated math whiz's first appearance at the courthouse since her December 2022 plea on fraud charges in the case.Ellison has agreed to testify against Bankman-Fried as part of a cooperation deal with the feds in hopes of receiving a more lenient sentence.

[Originally published Nov. 14, 2022 | Updated Dec. 22, 2022]

Caroline Ellison — the 28-year-old CEO of doomed crypto firm Alameda Research — is facing scrutiny not only over the firm’s multibillion-dollar meltdown, but also over rumors that she’s the ex-girlfriend of disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.

Ellison and Bankman-Fried were part of “cabal of roommates” based in a “luxury penthouse” in the Bahamas that were behind the machinations at FTX and Alameda, according to a bombshell report by CoinDesk. Alameda was one of about 130 FTX Group affiliates included in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing last week.

The housemates are reportedly Bankman-Fried’s former college classmates at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and former coworkers at the quantitative trading firm Jane Street.

Relationships between the group of 10 insiders weren’t strictly business – members of the inner circle “are, or used to be, paired up in romantic relationships with each other,” the report said.

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Authorities confiscated Sam Bankman-Fried’s two private jets, worth a collective $28.4 million, as the indicted founder of now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX — who was posed as a “flight risk” — enters the fourth day of his six-week trial.

Though the government seized Bankman-Fried’s two jets in an apparent move to ensure he and his family remain grounded in the US, the 31-year-old former billionaire reportedly never even flew on the planes.

The two confiscated planes listed in authorities’ forfeiture filing in Manhattan federal court on Wednesday: a Bombardier Global 5000 and an Embraer ERJ-135BJ Legacy 600, which cost Bankman-Fried $15.9 million and $12.5 million, respectively.

The Bombardier model Bankman-Fried owns is one of the largest purpose-built private jets on the market, with a capacity to seat 13 passengers by day or sleep seven by night, according to a listing on charter airline VistaJet.

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Caroline Ellison, Bankman-Fried's former on-and-off lover, business partner and the feds' star witness, is expected to take the stand at some point Tuesday, prosecutors said just now as testimony wrapped up for the day.

The FTX co-founder Gary Wang was still on the stand being cross-examined when the trial broke for the weekend just before 2 p.m.The case is off Monday for the federal holiday, and will pick up Tuesday morning.

Gary Wang admitted Friday that several social media posts made by Bankman-Fried and FTX as the company crumbled — including Bankman-Fried's infamous "FTX is fine" tweet — were lies.

"FTX is fine. Assets are fine," said Bankman-Fried in a since-deleted Nov. 7, 2022, tweet sent while controversy swirled around the company.

Bankman-Fried claimed at the time that his exchange faced "false rumors" spread by its rival Binance, which had announced that it was selling off FTX-backed crypto tokens that it owned because of concerns that FTX could collapse.

"Was FTX fine?" federal prosecutor Nicolas Roos asked Wang on Friday.

"FTX was not fine, and assets were not fine, because FTX did not have enough assets for customer withdrawals," Wang responded.

Wang has pleaded guilty to felony fraud charges stemming from his role in the episode, and is testifying in hopes of receiving a more lenient sentence.

"Ideally, no prison time," he said when asked to describe his preferred outcome in the case.

Sam Bankman-Fried's parents — Barbara Fried and Joseph Bankman, both Stanford Law School professors — were sued last month by the current management of collapsed cryptocurrency company FTX.

FTX's suit accused the couple of using company funds to enrich themselves. Lawyers for Bankman and Fried called the accusations “completely false.”

Joseph Bankman and his son Gabriel Bankman-Fried (Sam's brother) were on a list of potential witnesses prosecutors read in court during jury selection at the outset of the trial Tuesday.

With Reuters