, that she, Bankman-Fried, and at least one other executive knew that customer deposits were transferred to Alameda. Given her own potential legal exposure in the case, one may expect her to stay in the sunny Bahamas, or at least in Hong Kong, where she may be harder to find — and potentially to arrest. Extradition from China is certainly less predictable or straightforward than detaining someone on U.S. soil.
The timing of this sighting is significant. Bankman-Fried was silent for a few weeks, only to conduct a flurry of media appearances in which he has and other executives. Given that, Ellison now has every reason to play a different kind of game — not the one in which she runs to the New Yorkto tell her story but the one in which she cooperates with prosecutors who may be willing to cut her some kind of deal to help them bring their case against the kingpin, Bankman-Fried.
Ellison would be a top priority for any prosecutor trying to indict Bankman-Fried. She has already talked about how he directed investments at Alameda — and, in at least one case, has talked about how he “convinced” her Alameda should invest in one of his other companies. This contradicts the general line that SBF gives nowadays: that he wasn’t really all that involved in what Alameda was up to.