Read the secret encrypted text messages that could help put Sam Bankman-Fried behind bars

Much of the government’s case against Sam Bankman-Fried hinges on the testimony and text messages from those in his crypto inner circle who turned against him late last year after the implosion of FTX and sister hedge fund Alameda Research.

Of the dozens of items entered into evidence in the first three weeks of the trial, a bank of messages on encrypted app Signal paint perhaps the clearest picture of Bankman-Fried’s alleged crimes.

Bankman-Fried faces seven criminal counts, including wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering that could land him in prison for life. Bankman-Fried, the son of two Stanford legal scholars, pleaded not guilty to all charges.

In trying to prove its case to a Manhattan jury, the government has presented a series of Signal exchanges involving Bankman-Fried, Caroline Ellison (his ex-girlfriend and the ex-CEO of Alameda Research), and former friends and top business execs Gary Wang, Nishad Singh and Ryan Salame. They date back to November 2021.

The messages gave jurors a rare look inside the casual conversations that culminated in a scheme described by U.S. Attorney Damian Williams as “one of the biggest financial frauds in American history.”

We’re quoting directly from the Signal messages that were entered as evidence, and not making spelling or other grammatical changes.

That’s the same day FTX issued a pause on all customer withdrawals. The price of FTT, FTX’s native token, plummeted by over 75%, and a high-tech bank run was in full force. Out of options, Bankman-Fried turned to Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, who announced he’d signed a non-binding letter of intent to acquire FTX.

On Nov. 9, Ellison again looked to the group for guidance about how to handle the now infamous all-hands meeting of Alameda’s roughly 30 employees.

She proposed saying, “Alameda is probably going to wind down” and that there was “no pressure” to stay but help with “stuff like making sure our lenders get paid” would be “super appreciated.”

Bankman-Fried suggested she say something about there “being a future of some sort for those who are excited.”

Ellison ended up divulging a lot more than that in the staff meeting.

“Alameda borrowed a bunch of money,” which it used to make investments, Ellison said at the meeting, a secret recording of which was played by the prosecution. But as crypto prices fell, “FTX had a shortfall of user funds” and then “users started withdrawing their funds” and they “realized they would not be able to continue.”

When she was asked by a staffer whose idea it was to plug Alameda’s loan losses with FTX customer money, she said, “Um, Sam, I guess,” and giggled.

“FTX basically always allowed Alameda to, like, borrow user funds, as far as I know,” Ellison said on the recording.

Meanwhile, a day after signing the non-binding purchase agreement, Binance withdrew the offer, citing reports of “mishandled customer funds” and federal investigations.

On Nov. 6, he tweeted that because of “recent revelations that have came [sic] to light, we have decided to liquidate any remaining FTT on our books.”

In a group chat with Bankman-Fried, Ellison, and Singh starting that day, Singh wrote “lots of withdrawals on ftx are queueing up,” with net changes of $1.25 billion in the last day, $230 million in the last three hours, and $120 million in the last hour.

Ellison responded with a “:(” and Bankman-Fried with an “oof” after first mistakenly writing “of.”

The three continued to strategize. Singh suggested a few hours later that they reach out to Zhao privately and “ask for a truce” to “stem the bleed,” though he and Bankman-Fried both worried that Binance wouldn’t deescalate in public.

Ellison separately tried to figure out what to tell Salame about whether FTX could meet all withdrawals. Bankman-Fried suggested she write, “we can meet a ton, though it’s already getting large.”

Later, Sam Trabucco, who had already departed as co-CEO of Alameda Research in August 2022, as well as Ellison, Ben Xie (Alameda’s head of trading), and Bankman-Fried, were in a group chat discussing how to respond to Zhao’s threat to liquidate his FTT tokens.

Ellison, who told jurors that she largely avoided social media, said she would tweet at CZ, a nickname for Zhao, that FTX would buy his entire stake at $22 per coin. Ellison also testified about the practice of using FTX customer funds funneled through Alameda to buy FTT to buoy the price during times of market volatility.

Bankman-Fried weighed in within minutes, writing, “I think the main point is just to counter the PR/narrative here — and Binance probably won’t take us up on it; I also think FWIW that the market is likely to buy more if we tweet it, but idk.” (FWIW is an acronym for for what it’s worth. IDK stands for I don’t know.)

Adam Yedidia, one of the prosecution’s lead witnesses, met Bankman-Fried in college at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the pair remained close friends.

In his testimony, Yedidia referred to a Signal thread called “People of the House,” referring to Bankman-Fried’s $35 million penthouse, where many employees lived.

In terms of who was paying the rent, Yedidia recalled Bankman-Fried saying he “assumed it’s just alameda paying for it in the end.”

The subject of campaign donations was pivotal to Singh’s testimony. The former FTX engineering chief, who pleaded guilty to six charges in February, alleged that his former boss was behind much of the scheme to funnel money to political campaigns.

Singh testified that Bankman-Fried directed money held in accounts belonging to Alameda Research be used for political donations. That continued even after Bankman-Fried was apparently aware that his crypto hedge fund couldn’t pay back the $13 billion in FTX customer funds it had borrowed.

While Bankman-Fried doesn’t face chares for campaign violations in this trial, a superseding indictment alleged he used customer funds to make more than $100 million in campaign contributions for the 2022 midterm elections. The government has incorporated that accusation within two of the charges that are still standing: wire fraud and money laundering.