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Caroline Ellison, former chief executive officer of Alameda Research LLC, exits court in New York, US, on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023. 

Yuki Iwamura | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Caroline Ellison, who ran Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto hedge fund while also dating the FTX founder, told jurors in her second day of testimony that one way her boss was considering repaying FTX customer accounts was by raising money from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Ellison, 28, pleaded guilty in December to multiple counts of fraud as part of a plea deal with the government and is now viewed as the prosecution’s star witness in Bankman-Fried’s trial. In damning testimony on Tuesday, she said Bankman-Fried directed her and other staffers to defraud FTX customers by funneling billions of dollars to sister hedge fund Alameda Research.

Assistant U.S. attorney Danielle Sassoon wasted no time diving back into the questioning when court was called to session at 9:30am.

After previously detailing how FTX customer funds were used to repay Alameda loans, Ellison said on Wednesday that crypto lender Genesis called back a bunch of loans in 2022 and asked to see a balance sheet. Because Alameda’s actual balance sheet showed it had $15 billion in FTX customer funds, Bankman-Fried directed Ellison on June 28, 2022, to come up with “alternative” balance sheets that didn’t look as bad, she said.

Ellison, wearing a buttoned gray blazer with her long hair swept over her left shoulder, said she discussed her concerns with Bankman-Fried as well as top execs Gary Wang and Nishad Singh. She said the group brainstormed ways to make the balance sheet look better.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon questions Caroline Ellison as defense lawyer Mark Cohen stands to object at Sam Bankman-Fried’s fraud trial before U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan over the collapse of FTX, the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange, at Federal Court in New York City, U.S., October 11, 2023 in this courtroom sketch. 

Jane Rosenberg | Reuters

After the meeting, Ellison prepared a number of different balance sheet variations to send to Genesis. Eventually, according to Ellison, Bankman-Fried chose the one that omitted a line saying “FTX borrows,” hiding $10 billion in borrowed customer money. “Some was netted against related-party loans,” she said, and “some netted against crypto.”

That made it seem “like we had plenty of assets to cover our open term loans,” Ellison said.

Ellison told jurors she “was in a constant state of dread” since she knew there were billions of dollars of loans being recalled that could only be repaid with money from FTX customers. She said she was “worried about the possibility of customer withdrawals” that could happen at any time.

“I was concerned that if anyone found out, it would all come crashing down,” Ellison said. When asked by Sassoon why she continued with the scheme, Ellison said, “Sam told me to.”

By October 2022, the internal balance sheet had liabilities of $15.6 billion, while the numbers they showed the lender indicated just under $8 billion. Ellison said Bankman-Fried was talking about trying to raise money from Mohammed bin Salman, also known as MBS, as a way to make FTX customers whole.

Disappearing Signal messages

Ellison, a Stanford graduate and one of Bankman-Fried’s earliest recruits to Alameda in 2017, was reportedly convinced by Bankman-Fried to ditch her job at Wall Street trading firm Jane Street to join Alameda as a trader. At the time, the hedge fund was still in its original office in the San Francisco Bay area.

Six years later, Ellison is testifying against the 31-year-old Bankman-Fried, who faces seven federal charges, including wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering, all tied to the collapse of FTX and Alameda late last year. If convicted in the trial that began last week, Bankman-Fried could spend his life in prison. He has pleaded not guilty.

Ellison said Bankman-Fried directed FTX and Alameda employees to use the disappearing message setting on Signal and told them to be very careful about what they put in writing because of potential legal exposure. In addition to a companywide meeting about the Signal policy, Bankman-Fried also told employees that when it comes to Slack, they should only write things that they’re comfortable seeing on the front page of the New York Times.

Caroline Ellison, former CEO of Alameda Research, center, arrives at court in New York on Oct. 10, 2023.

Yuki Iwamura | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Backing up to the summer and fall of 2022, Ellison provided more detail about her interactions with Bankman-Fried as his crypto firms’ financial problems were becoming more apparent. Ellison said the two ways they talked about bringing in more money for FTX were by acquiring BlockFi or by selling equity.

In August of last year, Ellison said Bankman-Fried told her that Alameda’s finances were her fault even though she’d been warning about FTX’s expanding portfolio of venture investments and the need to repay FTX customer accounts. Bankman-Fried told her she should have hedged and, “speaking loudly and strongly,” said it was “her fault.”

On the stand, Ellison took some blame, admitting she should have done things differently, “but Sam was the one who chose to make all the investments that put us in a leveraged position,” she said.

Ellison, who’d started dating Bankman-Fried in the summer of 2021, said that by the fall of 2022 they’d been broken up for several months. She said she would try to avoid one-on-one contact with Bankman-Fried, though they were still talking on Signal and were together in group meetings. She said she still provided him the same regular updates on Alameda and its balance sheet.

Ellison said she kept a Google Doc that had a subcategory labeled, “things Sam is freaking out about.” It included, “raising from MBS,” as well as “getting regulators to crack down on Binance,” a rival exchange that was also an early investor in FTX. Bankman-Fried wanted to see Binance feel some pain because he saw that as the best way for FTX to increase market share, Ellison said.

Another worry on the list was, “bad pr in the next six months,” which Bankman-Fried feared would interfere with FTX’s efforts to obtain a license for futures trading in the U.S.

WATCH: Ellison says “Sam directed me to commit these crimes”

Star witness in SBF trial: "Sam directed me to commit these crimes"

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How tariffs and AI are giving secondhand platforms like ThredUp a boost

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How tariffs and AI are giving secondhand platforms like ThredUp a boost

At ThredUp‘s 600,000-square-foot warehouse in Suwanee, Georgia, roughly 40,000 pieces of used clothing are processed each day. The company’s logistics network — four facilities across the U.S. — now rivals that of some fast-fashion giants.

“This is the largest garment-on-hanger system in the world,” said Justin Pina, ThredUp’s senior director of operations. “We can hold more than 3.5 million items here.”

Secondhand shopping is booming. The global secondhand apparel market is expected to reach $367 billion by 2029, growing almost three times faster than the overall apparel market, according to GlobalData.

President Donald Trump’s tariffs were billed as a way to bring manufacturing back home. But the measures hit one of America’s most import-dependent industries: fashion.

About 97 percent of clothing sold in the U.S. is imported, mostly from China, Vietnam, Bangladesh and India, according to the American Apparel and Footwear Association.

For years, Gen Z shoppers have been driving the rise of secondhand fashion, but now more Americans are catching on.

“When tariffs raise those costs, resale platforms suddenly look like the smart buy. This isn’t just a fad,” said Jasmine Enberg, co-CEO of Scalable. “Tariffs are accelerating trends that were already reshaping the way Americans shop.”

For James Reinhart, ThredUp’s CEO, the company is already seeing it play out.

“The business is free-cash-flow positive and growing double digits,” said Reinhart. “We feel really good about the economics, gross margins near 80% and operations built entirely within the U.S.”

ThredUp reported that revenue grew 34% year over year in the third quarter. The company also said it acquired more new customers in the quarter than at any other time in its history, with new buyer growth up 54% from the same period last year.

“If tariffs add 20% to 30% to retail prices, that’s a huge advantage for resale,” said Dylan Carden, research analyst at William Blair & Company. “Pre-owned items aren’t subject to those duties, so demand naturally shifts.”

Inside the ThredUp warehouse, where CNBC got a behind-the-scenes look. automation hums alongside human workers. AI systems photograph, categorize, and price thousands of garments per hour. For Reinhart, the technology is key to scaling resale like retail.

“AI has really accelerated adoption,” said Reinhart. “It’s helping us improve discovery, styling, and personalization for buyers.”

That tech wave extends beyond ThredUp. Fashion-tech startups Phia, co-founded by Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni, is using AI to scan thousands of listings across retail and resale in seconds.

“The fact that we’ve driven millions in transaction volume shows how big this need is,” Gates said. “People want smarter, cheaper ways to shop.”

ThredUp is betting that domestic infrastructure, automation, and AI will keep it ahead of the curve, and that tariffs meant to revive U.S. manufacturing could end up powering a new kind of American fashion economy.

“The future of fashion will be more sustainable than it is today,” said Reinhart. “And secondhand will be at the center of it.”

Watch the video to learn more.

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AI anxiety on the rise: Startup founders react to bubble fears

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AI anxiety on the rise: Startup founders react to bubble fears

Markets were on edge this week as a steady stream of negative headlines around the artificial intelligence trade stoked fears of a bubble.

Famed short-seller Michael Burry cast doubt on the sustainability of AI earnings. Concerns around the levels of debt funding AI infrastructure buildouts grew louder. And once high-flyers like CoreWeave tanked on disappointing guidance.

CNBC’s Deirdre Bosa asked those at the epicenter of the boom for their take, sitting down with the founders of two of the buzziest AI startups.

Amjad Masad, founder and CEO of AI coding startup Replit, admits there’s been a cooldown.

“Early on in the year, there was the vibe coding hype market, where everyone’s heard about vibe coding. Everyone wanted to go try it. The tools were not as good as they are today. So I think that burnt a lot of people,” Masad said. “So there’s a bit of a vibe coding, I would say, hype slow down, and a lot of companies that were making money are not making as much money.”

Masad added that a lot companies were publishing their annualized recurring revenue figures every week, and “now they’re not.”

Navrina Singh, founder and CEO of startup Credo AI, which helps enterprises with AI oversight and risk management, is seeing more excitement than fear.

“I don’t think we are in a bubble,” she said. “I really believe this is the new reality of the world that we are living in. As we know, AI is going to be and already is our biggest growth driver for businesses. So it just makes sense that there has to be more investment, not only on the capability side, governance side, but energy and infrastructure side as well.”

Watch this video to learn more. 

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Google and Disney reach deal to restore ESPN, ABC to YouTube TV

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Google and Disney reach deal to restore ESPN, ABC to YouTube TV

Alphabet and Disney on Friday announced that they’ve reached a deal to restore content from ABC and ESPN onto Google’s YouTube TV.

The deal comes after a two-week standoff between the two companies that started on Oct. 31. The stalemate resulted in numerous live sporting events, including college football games and two Monday Night Football games, being absent from the popular streaming service.

“We’re happy to share that we’ve reached an agreement with Disney that preserves the value of our service for our subscribers and future flexibility in our offers,” YouTube said in a statement. “Subscribers should see channels including ABC, ESPN and FX returning to their service over the course of the day, as well as any recordings that were previously in their Library. We apologize for the disruption and appreciate our subscribers’ patience as we negotiated on their behalf.”

Disney Entertainment’s co-chairs Alan Bergman and Dana Walden, along with ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro, said in a statement that said the agreement reflects “how audiences choose to watch” entertainment.

“We are pleased that our networks have been restored in time for fans to enjoy the many great programming options this weekend, including college football,” they said.

More than 20 Disney-owned channels were removed from YouTube TV, which offered its subscribers $20 credits this week due to the dispute. In addition to ABC and ESPN, other networks that were unavailable included FX, NatGeo, Disney Channel and Freeform. 

The main sticking point between the two companies was the rate Disney charges YouTube TV for its networks. Disney’s most valuable channel, ESPN, charges carriage of more than $10 a month per pay-TV subscriber, a higher fee than any other network in the U.S., CNBC previously reported.

It’s not the first conflict this year between YouTube and legacy media.

NBCUniversal content was nearly removed from YouTube TV before the companies reached an agreement in October, preventing shows like “Sunday Night Football” and “America’s Got Talent” from being pulled.

YouTube TV also found itself in a standoff with Fox in August that almost resulted in Fox News, Fox Sports and other Fox channels going dark on the service just before the start of the college football season. The two sides were able to strike a deal to prevent a blackout.

YouTube said it has the option for future program packages with Disney and other partners.

Disney said that access to a selection of live and on-demand programming from ESPN Unlimited, which includes content from ESPN+ and new content on its all-inclusive digital service coming later this year, will be available on YouTube TV to base plan subscribers at no additional cost by the end of 2026.

Here’s the memo that Disney executives sent to employees:

Team,

We’re pleased to share that we’ve reached a new agreement with YouTube TV, and all of our stations and networks are in the process of being restored to the service.

While this was a challenging moment, it ultimately led to a strong outcome for both consumers and for our company, with a deal that recognizes the tremendous value of the high-quality entertainment, sports, and news that fans have come to expect from Disney.

Over the past few years, we’ve led the way in creating innovative deals with key partners –
each one unique, and each designed to recognize the full value of our programming. This new agreement reflects that same creativity and commitment to doing what’s best for both our audiences and our business.

We’re proud of the work that went into this deal and grateful to everyone who helped make it happen — especially Sean Breen, Jimmy Zasowski, and the Platform Distribution team for their tireless commitment throughout this process.

Thank you all for your patience and professionalism over the past several weeks. As you all know, the media landscape continues to evolve quickly, which makes these types of negotiations complex. What hasn’t changed is our focus on the viewer. Our priority is — and will always be — delivering the best experiences and the best value to fans, and we’ll continue working closely with our partners to ensure we’re fulfilling that mission for our audiences.

We’re incredibly optimistic about what’s ahead and grateful to all of you for continuing to set the standard for entertainment around the world.

Alan, Dana & Jimmy

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. Versant would become the new parent company of CNBC upon Comcast’s planned spinoff of Versant.

WATCH: Google has a lot more leverage over Disney in their carriage fight: LightShed’s Rich Greenfield

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