Aditya Baradwaj can pinpoint the “exact moment” he knew the party was over for Sam Bankman-Fried and his once-booming FTX cryptocurrency empire.
The scruffy, 31-year-old crypto kingpin had showered staff like Baradwaj, a former software engineer at FTX’s sister firm Alameda Research, with a torrent of lavish perks throughout late 2021 and 2022 – only to plunge the $32 billion company out of business last November.
While awaiting word from their bosses last Nov. 9 on whether FTX would survive, Baradwaj and other staffers huddled in Alameda’s Hong Kong office tried to order takeout on a bank card — “probably a poke bowl or fried rice,” he said.
The transaction was declined.
“We ordered our lunch in the afternoon, same as usual,” Baradwaj told The Post. “After we went to order our food in the evening, the app says ‘bank card declined.’ That’s the moment where we realized, holy s—t, the company might be broke.”
Just a few hours later, Caroline Ellison — CEO of Alameda Research and likewise Bankman-Fried’s ex-lover — surfaced for the first time in two days for a tense, tearful all-hands meeting that’s now expected to play a pivotal role in a federal trial next month, where the disgraced FTX boss faces charges for allegedly stealing billions in customer funds.
![Aditya Baradwaj](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/09/NYPICHPDPICT000043818898.png?w=1024)
“We were afraid,” Baradwaj said. “This thing was making international news. My family and friends were calling me, I’m getting all these calls. I’m sitting in a hotel in Hong Kong and I don’t wish to get thrown in Chinese jail.”
Baradwaj, detailing his experience for the first time in an exclusive interview with The Post, was in the room with Ellison when she staged her now-infamous call with employees.
As those in the Hong Kong office sat in a circle round her, some perched on beanbags and others listening in by video conference, Ellison broke down in tears.
“I suppose, mostly I wanna say, like, I’m sorry. This really sucks,” Ellison sobbed, in accordance with court documents. “I believe my current default plan is that Alameda will likely wind down once we are able to, like, repay all of our creditors and type of wind down a bunch of our, like, whatever remaining obligations now we have.”
![Aditya Baradwaj](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/09/NYPICHPDPICT000043818879.png?w=576)
One Alameda staffer asked Ellison, “Who made the decision on using [FTX] user deposits?” She is alleged to have responded, ““Um…Sam, I suppose.”
After the meeting, Baradwaj said he and his stunned colleagues needed to “literally book our flights and escape the country.” The subsequent day, he resigned, bought a plane ticket home and left Hong Kong.
“Mr. Bankman-Fried maintains his innocence and appears forward to his day in court,” Bankman-Fried spokesperson Mark Botnick said in a press release.
![Caroline Ellison](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/09/NYPICHPDPICT000039609178-1.jpg?w=1024)
Ellison’s legal team didn’t return The Post’s request for comment.
The primary clear signs of significant financial trouble at FTX had emerged every week earlier on Nov. 2, when a leaked Alameda Research balance sheet raised questions on the empire’s solvency and ultimately sparked a flood of withdrawals, in accordance with Baradwaj.
In the days before the meeting, the 28-year-old Ellison — now famed for her reported experimentation with polyamory and her love of “Harry Potter” — had issued a series of increasingly urgent messages demanding that Alameda’s traders pull capital from other exchanges to make sure FTX could meet withdrawals.
“Her tone when she said this had a form of urgency that none of us had ever really seen in her before. We could tell that something was happening,” Baradwaj said. “We’ve never really had to empty capital off the exchanges that we trade on and effectively stop trading on them simply to have the opportunity to do something else.”
![Caroline Ellison](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/09/NYPICHPDPICT000039609179-1.jpg?w=1024)
Indeed, Baradwaj, who had been working alongside Ellison in Hong Kong at the time, said that until that time she had “gave the look of a a sort person” and was an excellent manager. Ellison was “forgiving of mistakes,” and tried to make the company a “nice social environment,” in accordance with Baradwaj.
“My opinion of Caroline — right as much as the very end where she gave us this confession and told us what they’d been doing — my impression of here was that she as an excellent boss,” Baradwaj said. “She gave the look of a sort person.”
Lower than every week afterward Nov. 8, staffers were blindsided by Bankman-Fried’s announcement on Twitter that rival platform Binance had offered to purchase FTX to unravel its “liquidity crunch.” Binance later backed out of the rescue deal.
![Sam Bankman-Fried](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/09/NYPICHPDPICT000040804338-1.jpg?w=1024)
On the day of the meeting, Baradwaj and other employees sat around the office “doing nothing,” lacking any available capital with which to trade or any guidance from Bankman-Fried and his inner circle on their next move.
“In my head, there was one central event, which is Caroline’s confession,” Baradwaj said.
“After that meeting, all of us left the office and we never spoke to Caroline after that,” he added. “Caroline even tried to make conversation with someone and he or she was ignored. Nobody even desired to consult with her.
“For Sam, that’s much more so,” he added.
![Sam Bankman-Fried](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/09/NYPICHPDPICT000026890431.jpg?w=1024)
FTX, Alameda and countless other affiliates filed for bankruptcy two days afterward Nov. 11 – establishing the chain of events that ultimately led to Bankman-Fried’s arrest in the Bahamas and indictment on charges of securities fraud, money laundering and campaign-finance violations. He has pleaded not guilty.
“He’s definitely guilty,” said Baradwaj. “We all know he’s guilty because Caroline mainly said so, and this was back in mid-November, like in the heat of the moment, before she had talked to any lawyers, before the bankruptcy even. She confessed to us and there’s a recording of the confession.”