carolyn ellison hired the law firm very high profile law firm named wilmer hale, okay? with deep ties to the u.s. attorney's office, the southern district of new york, which is doing a criminal probe on this whole thing. this is the office that has a guy named pareet baraja, former u.s. attorney for the southern district, again, that's the office doing the investigation and there's a gentleman named ajan sadi, ausa, who is one of the , was one of the top people at that office in terms of prosecuting white collar crime is now a major defense attorney. you put it all together and what people are saying, this is in the legal bar, and it's speculating but it's good, high- level speculation is that they think carolyn ellison will do a plea deal. wilmer hale charges $1,000-plus an hour. she probably, given unless she's sitting on billions of crypto that she cashed out, she probably doesn't have that type of bank to do a long type of drawn out years-long defense here. this is something that people think she's going to turn on sam bankman-fried and cut some sort of a plea deal.

carolyn ellison said you knew about that. is that true?ion, i think, was, you know, very overcollateralized a year ago. there was a market collapse in its assets the last month and to some extent over the last year that threatened that position quite a bit, and i think that's, you know, as best i can tell a lot of what happened. >> i'm no cryptocurrency expert and i'm no finance expert, but i don't think you answered me question. i asked you, did you know that ftx deposits were used to pay off alameda creditors? >> i don't know of ftx deposits being used to pay off alameda creditors. are you -- which creditors are you referring to? >> carolyn ellison said you all knew that these funds were used -- were put into alameda. they were the funds owned by your depositors. >> so i can't speak for who knew what. you know, a lot of the customers on ftx did have, you know, in dollars or bitcoin. >> as you know, the ftx terms of service tell the people who signed up, none of the digital assets in your account are the property of or shall be or may be

they have the ex-girlfriend, carolyn ellison.f her plea agreement, which i did, it says point blank that both her, sam bankman-fried and she said others agreed not to disclose the full extent of the relationship with the crypto exchange, which had the customer money and the hedge fund to make unlimited borrowing of those customer funds or use of those customer funds in its gambling in the cryptocurrency casino. she said that. i'm paraphrasing a little bit. that is like means he's toast. i don't know why they're being so nice to him. he still has his -- his family has a lot of stroke in democratic party circles. we should point out that carolyn ellison, hired a former u.s. attorney who is very close ties to the biden administration. she got her plea deal that way. i'm sure there's others. we should make one other point. there's likely to be more indictments next week. those could be the others that she was talking ant. >> anita: she's said a lot of interesting things to investigators. quickly to your point. it's interesting to see

carolyn ellison, the former ceo of alameda research, it appears that she may face charges that she actuallyt cryptocurrency and that gary wang, the chief technical officer for ftx may have written programs that allowed ftx customers' funds to be diverted without their being detection of that. both of those people, high-level executives, cooperating with federal authorities and planning to plead guilty and presumably have fewer charges, fewer sentences, more leniency in exchange for that cooperation. >> great seeing you. appreciate your time. >> nice to see you. >>> up next, almost the entire country is bracing for a massive winter storm. i'll talk to an emergency management official in chicago about how people there should prepare. >>> plus the fight over our border policy held up in courts. people who just arrived in the u.s. are on the streets in bitter cold. we're live from el paso next. if you still have symptoms of moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis or active psoriatic arthritis after a tnf blocker like humira or enbrel, rinvoq is different and may help. stand up to your symptoms

the consensus is somebody, a whistleblower or a lot of people pointed to carolyn ellison of sam bankman-fried's former girlfriend, part of brandeis enterprise, she's possibly the cooperator. that's not confirmed. she hired a law firm that generally does the use play agreements with the us attorneys of the southern district. people think there is a cooperator, some people think this guys going to jail for a long time, pretty tight case. i know he was making media rounds, seemed like he full reporters, he fooled congress people like maxine waters who said thank you for being so honest with everybody in talking to reporters but didn't fool the us attorney's office but you can't create, confirm and take someone else's money and say it is a mistake. it's not the way things work. i've been telling you this for a long time. so many networks, what this guy's line of bs, it is run of the mill, take what is yours and spend it, gambling in the casino of crypto, it is pretty cut and dried, probably not going to get 15 years in jail but don't be surprised if they don't find any of the money, if it is all go

neil: between carolyn ellison and the founder of ftx along with them. he is cornered. think he is toast but he was before he was indicted. i told you he would get indicted before the end of the year. my sources said they had a solid, unbeatable case. the us attorneys case doesn't really lose. these types of indictments. one thing we should throw out. if you look at the bail thing, parents money, there is a mystery donor. and unnamed party who put up their house or whatever, bond or something, that mystery donor, given the parents ties to the richest democrats in the country. it would be nice to know this was a political person they tapped into. sam bankman-fried's mother, missus fried, mister bankman is the old man is a huge democrat fundraiser with ties. neil: we don't know who that is. charles: i don't think it is out of the ordinary to sort of let's see who it is. could it be that? neil: this will go to trial? charles: he is toast. he has got to be crazy. neil: if you don't score a deal -- charles: he throws himself on the mercy of the court. this guy is so done. i

carolyn ellison and gary wang pleaded guilty to fraud charges and are cooperating with law enforcement-fried was indicted earlier this month his next court date is coming up on january 3rd >> do we have any idea who this nonfamily member is that put up millions of dollars to release sam bankman-fried? the parents don't have it? who is putting up that kind of money. >> we don't have a name. they said it's someone with significant -- basically a significant net worth to back this but somebody who theoretically could come up with that amount $4 million house is a lot of people, but it's nowhere near that $250 million total that they would be on the line for. >> and they probably owe money on the house must be nice to have well-connected friends that can throw up a few tens of millions of dollars to get you out of jail thank you very much. merry christmas. thank you. >> merry christmas. >>> straight ahead, the countdown to christmas how the committee is playing the sector next on halftime. if you wanted to hold my hand... [ gasps ] all you had to do is ask. i am down to my last life. when

charles: carolyn ellison is one of those canaries. we should point out on this very show.o. charles: the hedge fund connected to ftx which according to the us attorney's office took the money out to make up for trading losses, took people's money in the ftx. neil: now she's talking. charles: we were the first to report on that and here is how we knew, not just because i had a source connected to the us attorney's office which i did, but one other thing, look who she hired as her attorney. wilmer hale. that firm is notorious, or known, it's not a negative thing, for cutting deals with the us attorney's office in the southern district, the former head of the us attorney's office is there. her director, the guy's name escapes me, i am bad with names, that gentlemen almost became us attorney for the southern district, he's in private practice now. you go there, you are cutting a deal so not only did i have a source, but it is happening. this says to me we are going to hear more about this later today, sam bankman-fried will be arranged. he will want bail but in exchange for ba

district attorney's office announced co-founder of ftx and carolyn ellison.mer ceo of the research hedge fund also intertwined in this alleged fraud. interestingly, today prosecutors also revealed a little bit more about the evidence they have. they said knicks to those cooperating witnesses they also have testimony of dozens of former employees of ftx and alameda as well as encrypted messages. stating that the amount of evidence in this case is strong, something the magistrate judge acknowledged also in this matter. having the cooperation is really key for prosecutors especially in a complicated financial fraud case. someone who can help walk, wrote the prosecutors and potential jury through evidence of what happened and why they have encrypted messages and will be able to explain what happened. as we've learned from the bankrupt of ftx so far, seemingly a disorganized place, didn't have financial statements in some of these areas, some of these business units. having the help of insiders is really very significant to prosecutors and adds to the pressure ban

bankman-fried's inner circle, particularly when you talk about his former alleged girlfriend carolyn ellison bankman-fried's parents. and bankman-fried's parents who are professors, they were involved to the extend that joseph bankman would frequently accompany his son sam fr bankman-fried's appearances at capitol hill. and they allege that bankman-fried used customer funds to buy millions of dollars of real estate in the bahamas for himself, his parents and other company execs, and the ceo says he's investigating the company's relationship with both parents. >> we're investigating that as well as any other players. >> okay had he been an employee of ftx. >> i don't know if he had an employee status, but the family did receive payments. >> and bankman-fried's alleged former girlfriend, former ceo v bankman-fried's hedge fund, alameda research, which prosecutors say misappropriated funds and had access to $8 billion of customers money that is allegedly missing and a lot of people are wondering whether ellison will be charged, whether the parents will be charged or whether they'll work with th

it comes as bankman-fried's top lieutenants, carolyn ellison and gary wong pleaded guilty to fraud chargescement. he was indicted in federal courts earlier this month. his next court date is coming up on january 3rd >> how crucial is the fact that they've turned on him basically. >> that's key. and we've also got some new information as far as a plea deal that was unveiled today and federal prosecutors says, they did not -- or they kept it basically sealed until sam bankman-fried got on the plane so he wouldn't avoid extradition. knowing that, it seems like that would have been a huge factor here in his deciding to come back to the u.s. i'm told by legal experts that this really does not leave him a lot of wiggle room these are his two top associates they're not average employees. these two people would know exactly what happened here and others i'm told, the fact that he acceptled extradition, took this bond, there's signs that he's likely willing to cooperate and may be looking to strike a deal of his own. >> and if they hadn't turned against him, they all could have tried to make the ca

spaces event last night and he indicated that there were numerous communications exchanged with carolyn ellison falling apart so certainly investigators will go after that. now this process will also reveal where he got the money to finance what lawyers call his " personal thiefdom" and you can see a number of questionable purchases there 38 million in mid-term donations, 300 million in real estate. sbf is claiming a number of the expenses were for company use or funded by "profits" and if investigators can prove company profits were used, everything can be seized. >> but if you follow the dollars in, whether they come into the company and then go out to sam bankman-fried personally or some of his employees, all of that money will be deemed, in most circumstances, to be corporate money, and will be brought back in bankruptcy. if money was used to make political contributions. reporter: they clawed back everything in the madoff case both european homes and that took years, ashley so we could be waiting a long time. ashley: i think we could. great stuff, kelly. thank you very much. i also want to