Secret Alameda recording reveals exact moment staff learned about FTX deposits

cointelegraph.com:

A 75-minute secretly recorded audio clip of Caroline Ellison has revealed the exact moment 15 former Alameda Research staff found out the hedge fund was “borrowing” user funds from FTX. 

The full-length recording obtained by Cointelegraph provides fresh insights into the palpable tension Ellison and Alameda staff felt in the lead-up to FTX’s collapse.

“Alameda was kind of borrowing a bunch of money via open-term loans and using that to make various illiquid investments. So like a bunch of FTX and FTX US equity [...] Most of Alameda’s loans got called in in order to meet those recalls,” Ellison explained during an all-hands meeting in Hong Kong on Nov. 9, 2022.

“[FTX] basically always allowed Alameda to borrow users’ funds,” she added, speaking to the 15 or so staff in the meeting.

Select segments of the audio recording of the meeting were also played before the court on the eighth day of Sam Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial on Oct. 12, which was part of witness testimony from Christian Drappi, a former software engineer at Alameda.

Drappi’s appearance on the witness stand came immediately following nearly three days of Ellison’s testimony. It is understood that before the meeting, Drappi and many other Alameda employees had no idea that the hedge fund had allegedly been using FTX customer deposits to prop up its trading activity.

In the recording, Drappi is also overheard asking Ellison when she became aware that Alameda was misusing FTX user deposits and who else at the company had known about it.

Initially, Ellison shied away from answering, but Drappi pressed again:

Related: Changpeng Zhao’s tweet ‘contributed’ to collapse of FTX, claims Caroline Ellison

According to court reporting from the trial, the playback of