--- title: "FTX Witness Says SBF Sent Chinese Officials $150 Million In Bribes" description: "Add cashing out $150 million in foreign bribes — and very weird plots involving Thai prostitutes — to the list of FTX uncanniness." date: "2023-10-12" modified: "2023-10-12" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/ftx-witness-sbf-150-million-bribes" categories: - "Blockchain" - "Future Society" tags: - "caroline ellison" - "ftx trial" - "sam bankman-fried" - "the digest" --- # FTX Witness Says SBF Sent Chinese Officials $150 Million In Bribes ![Add cashing out $150 million in foreign bribes — and very weird plots involving Thai prostitutes — to the list of FTX uncanniness.]() *\Image: Spencer Platt/Getty\* ## Uncanny Everything As FTX insider Caroline Ellison's star testimony drags on, the sheer uncanniness of the bankrupted crypto exchange's behind-closed-doors practices under the command of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried — Ellison's boss with whom she was romantically involved — continues to take shape. Previously, we'd heard Ellison's claims that Bankman-Fried [dreamed of being president]() and [exhibited]() [extremely Harvey Dent-coded behavior](), in addition to more serious allegations of [doctoring balance sheets]() and [hiding multibillion-dollar financial holes](). Now, as [*New York Magazine* reports](), Ellison — the former CEO of the also-bankrupt sister hedge fund Alameda Research — further alleged yesterday that Bankman-Fried had bribed Chinese government officials to the staggering tune of $150 million in an attempt to unfreeze roughly a billion dollars in trapped FTX funds. To be clear, that *a* bribe happened isn't new information; back in March, [as *The New York Times* reported at the time](), Bankman-Fried was charged with authorizing and directing some $40 million in bribes to Chinese officials. But the $150 million alleged by Ellison — and reportedly backed up by Alameda documents — is a much bigger figure, with Ellison's testimony also casting more light on the crypto firms' shared inner turmoil at the time that the bribes were paid. ## The Thing According to Ellison's testimony, per *NY Mag*, Bankman-Fried's bribery plan was swiftly met with employee pushback, particularly from an ex-Alameda trader Handi Yang, the daughter of a Chinese official who SBF allegedly yelled at to "shut the fuck up" as she voiced her opposition. Unsurprisingly, Yang quit the hedge fund shortly thereafter. "Did Handi's father immediately turn us in or something?" an Alameda executive asked in a group chat following Yang's departure, according to *NY Mag*, prompting Bankman-Fried to respond with: "LOL." Elsewhere, in an especially bizarre turn, Ellison reportedly alleged that Alameda had inexplicably attempted to use trading accounts connected to Thai strippers to retrieve frozen FTX money. When this very weird, very bad plan didn't work out as planned, Alameda apparently paid out the bribes. As evidence for Ellison's accusations, the prosecution provided a document that Ellison had created and shared with Bankman-Fried titled "notable/idiosyncratic PNL stuff," "PNL" being short for "profits and losses." In one line of this document, according to *NY Mag*, Ellison had written "-$150 million for the thing" — the blanket "thing" statement referring to the "bribing foreign governments" of it all, naturally. Asked why she used covert language to refer to the bribes, Ellison reportedly responded that she figured it "might leak" and "could eventually be used against us in a court case." On that point, she appears to have been entirely correct. **More on FTX:** [*Caroline Ellison Testifies That SBF's Strange Philosophy Justified Lying and Stealing*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()