FTX founder’s ex-girlfriend ‘has a choice to make’ over allegedly cooperating with officials: Marc Litt

The girlfriend of disgraced FTX founder Samuel Bankman-Fried allegedly cooperated with federal officials, it emerged shortly after his arrest in the Bahamas in connection with the collapse of his crypto empire.

Former U.S. attorney Marc Litt, who was involved in the Bernie Madoff lawsuit, joined “Fox & Friends Weekend” on Sunday to discuss the report alleging Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison worked with officials in relationship to the charges.

“It wouldn’t surprise me at all,” Litt told Will Cain of the report. “She was the CEO of a company that appears to be intimately involved in the alleged fraud, and she is…in the government’s crosshairs…and she has a choice to make.”

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“There is a bit of a chase at this point because the government needs collaborators,” he continued. “It’s in her interest to spin her narrative and tell her story before everyone the government talks to, the finger tip, so she has every interest in cooperating and reaping the benefits of cooperation.”

Bankman Fried was arrested on Monday and charged in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday with fraud, money laundering and campaign finance charges in connection with an alleged scheme to embezzle billions of dollars in customer funds deposited with the international crypto exchange. FTX currency and to mislead investors and lenders to FTX and Alameda Research, the cryptocurrency hedge fund he also founded. Bankman-Fried’s ex, Ellison, had been the latter’s CEO.

Bankman-Fried, who was arrested in the Bahamas, is expected to appear in a Bahamian court on Monday to back down and agree to extradition.

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Litt explained his role as a defendant in the extradition process and why he may be fighting the process, delaying his imminent return to the United States.

“The defendant has rights,” Litt said. “There is a process that must be followed, and the defendant has a difficult choice to make. They can either decide to fight extradition or waive that process and come to the United States voluntarily.”

“He might decide to fight extradition if he thinks delay is his friend or if he thinks there’s a chance that the country he’s in won’t fully extradite him or won’t extradite him. not extradite for some of the charges he faces,” he said. continued.

But Litt also mentioned that it might be in his interest, in this particular case, to decide not to fight extradition if he is to have a chance to defend himself best.

“On the other hand, if it is almost inevitable that he will be extradited and if delay is not his friend, which I think is the case here, he can decide to give up voluntarily and come to the United States,” Litt said. “It’s very hard to defend yourself against these kinds of accusations from jail, from jail. It’s doubly hard to do that if you’re in a foreign country.”

Bankman-Fried was the Democratic Party’s second-largest donor in the 2022 midterm elections, awarding candidates nearly $40 million.

Officials have been in contact with the Democratic and Republican campaigns regarding these donations since the FTX implosion.

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Danielle Wallace of FOX Business contributed to this report.