How Sam Bankman-Fried’s ex-girlfriend and early recruit helped put the FTX founder behind bars for 25 years
Caroline Ellison, former chief executive officer of Alameda Research LLC, center, arrives at court in New York, US, on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023.
Yuki Iwamura | Bloomberg | Getty Images
In sentencing FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried to a 25-year prison sentence on Thursday, Judge Lewis Kaplan cited testimony from Caroline Ellison, an ex-girlfriend of the defendant and early recruit into his crypto enterprise.
“I keep coming back to Ms. Ellison’s testimony that he knew it was wrong,” Kaplan said at the sentencing hearing in downtown Manhattan. “He knew it was criminal.”
Ellison was the star witness for the Department of Justice in its prosecution of Bankman-Fried. She agreed to a plea deal in December 2022, a month after FTX spiraled into bankruptcy.
As part of her testimony at the criminal trial late last year, Ellison supplied the government and the jury with text messages, documents and secret recordings that ultimately helped lead to Bankman-Fried’s conviction on all seven charges against him.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement after the sentencing on Thursday that Bankman-Fried’s “deliberate and ongoing lies demonstrated a brazen disregard for his customers’ expectations and disrespect for the rule of law, all so that he could secretly use his customers’ money to expand his own power and influence.”
Ellison, who ran FTX’s sister hedge fund Alameda Research, pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud, two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Though Ellison faces similar sentencing guidelines to Bankman-Fried, she’s expected to receive a far more lenient sentence due to her role as a cooperating witness.
Caroline Ellison is questioned as Sam Bankman-Fried watches during his 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, October 11, 2023 in this courtroom sketch.
Jane Rosenberg | Reuters
Ellison’s complicated ties to SBF
Ellison jumped into Bankman-Fried’s crypto orbit in 2017.
She’d been working as a trader at Jane Street, where Bankman-Fried got his start in finance. Bankman-Fried had reportedly convinced the Stanford graduate to ditch her Wall Street gig and join Alameda, when the hedge fund was still in its original Bay Area office.
Ellison spent years as Bankman-Fried’s on-again, off-again girlfriend and, at times, his roommate. She followed Bankman-Fried from California to Hong Kong and ultimately to the Bahamas, as Bankman-Fried repeatedly shifted headquarters for his crypto companies.
Michael Lewis wrote about Ellison in his book, “Going Infinite,” which covered Bankman-Fried’s rise and fall. In 2021, Ellison was promoted to CEO of Alameda, a job for which, according to Lewis’s reporting, neither Ellison nor Bankman-Fried found her particularly well suited.
“Caroline sensed that, even as Sam promoted her to CEO of Alameda Research, he disapproved of her job performance — and she shared his opinion,” Lewis wrote.
Lewis shared an excerpt from one of the memos that Ellison had sent Bankman-Fried. “It feels like I’m doing a much worse job managing Alameda than you would if you were working on it full-time,” she wrote.
In April 2021, Ellison tweeted about “regular amphetamine use” in a thread that also talked about the “herculean” effort it took for her to get off of her couch and go for a hike.
Court filings show that Ellison’s compensation paled in comparison to other top executives. Of the $3.2 billion in payouts to the exchange’s founders and other senior employees, FTX’s head of engineering, Nishad Singh, received $587 million, co-founder Gary Wang got $246 million and $2.2 billion went to Bankman-Fried. Ellison received $6 million.
Some of Ellison’s private diary entries were leaked by Bankman-Fried to The New York Times, which published a report about them last July, months before the trial. The act ultimately landed Bankman-Fried back in jail after Kaplan revoked his bail for alleged witness tampering.
In a Google document from February 2022 shared with the Times, Ellison wrote, “I have been feeling pretty unhappy and overwhelmed with my job. … At the end of the day I can’t wait to go home and turn off my phone and have a drink and get away from it all.”
She added, “It doesn’t really feel like there’s an end in sight.”
‘Trying to fix problems’
But it was in the courtroom that jurors got to hear Ellison for the first time.
U.S. Attorney Thane Rehn said during the trial that Bankman-Fried “was using her as a front” when “in reality, he was still calling the shots at Alameda.” Over the course of her multi-day testimony, Ellison helped prosecutors build a narrative that she was acting at the direction of Bankman-Fried in helping him steal customer money from FTX and using it to help prop up Alameda, which was suffering in the wake of the crypto winter.
Ellison said Bankman-Fried was still CEO of Alameda when the funneling of money began. She said she was under the impression that it was FTX customer money because the sums exceeded the exchange’s profits and the amount of capital it had raised.
In mid-2021, when FTX bought equity in the company back from rival exchange and early investor Binance, FTX used $1 billion in customer funds for the transaction, Ellison testified.
Ellison said she considered resigning from Alameda at various points from 2019 to November 2022.
On one of her Google Docs, Ellison had a section entitled “limiting factors in scaling,” which she said referred to things that were holding back Alameda. The first thing she listed was management, including a comment on her former co-CEO Sam Trabucco.
“I feel like neither Trabucco nor I has been doing a great job of pushing on stuff,” she wrote. “We’re in the mode of maintaining status quo and trying to fix problems.”
In terms of the commingling of operations between FTX and Alameda, Ellison admitted on the witness stand that the two firms didn’t have a proper “Chinese wall” separating the businesses.
During her testimony, Ellison mostly avoided eye contact with Bankman-Fried, staring down at her hands between questions and frequently flipping her hair over her left shoulder. Bankman-Fried also often looked away, with hands clenched.
Ellison told the jury that her breakup with Bankman-Fried in the spring of 2022 affected communications between the two of them. They would talk mostly over Signal despite living in the same apartment, and they largely avoided each other outside of work.
Danielle Sassoon, the assistant U.S. attorney representing the government, told Kaplan several times “the defendant has laughed, visibly shaken his head, and scoffed,” which she said could be having an effect on Ellison “given the history of this relationship, the prior attempts to intimidate her, the power dynamic, their romantic relationship.”
Caroline Ellison, former chief executive officer of Alameda Research LLC, arrives to court in New York, US, on Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Secret recordings and texts
Of the hundreds of items entered into evidence during the trial, a bank of messages on encrypted app Signal was among the most calamitous for Bankman-Fried.
The government presented a series of Signal exchanges involving Bankman-Fried, Ellison, Wang and other top execs. In one such exchange, from Nov. 8, 2022, Ellison appealed to Bankman-Fried and other members of the inner circle, asking for help on optics and public messaging.
Prosecutors relied heavily on text messages sent among FTX and Alameda Research executives in the case against Sam Bankman-Fried.
Source: SDNY
She wrote, “multiple people internally asking me whether they should continue to make statements to external parties like ‘Alameda is solvent.’ should i suggest they stall instead? just stall on responding to their messages? or what?”
That day, FTX issued a pause on all customer withdrawals.
The following day, Ellison again looked to the group for guidance about how to handle an all-hands meeting for Alameda’s roughly 30 employees.
Ellison’s proposal was to tell them, “Alameda is probably going to wind down” and that there was “no pressure” to stay but help with “stuff like making sure our lenders get paid” would be “super appreciated.”
Bankman-Fried suggested she say something about there “being a future of some sort for those who are excited.”
Prosecutors relied heavily on text messages sent among FTX and Alameda Research executives in the case against Sam Bankman-Fried.
Source: SDNY
Ellison ended up divulging a lot more than that in the staff meeting, a secret recording of which was played for the jury.
“Alameda borrowed a bunch of money,” which it used to make investments, Ellison said at the meeting. But as crypto prices fell, “FTX had a shortfall of user funds” and then “users started withdrawing their funds” and they “realized they would not be able to continue.”
When she was asked by a staffer whose idea it was to plug Alameda’s loan losses with FTX customer money, she said, “Um, Sam, I guess,” and giggled.
“FTX basically always allowed Alameda to, like, borrow user funds, as far as I know,” Ellison said.
Environment
Toyota’s 1,850-acre EV battery plant is live, but the company says this is just the start
Toyota’s $14 billion US battery plant is now up and running. The mega site spans 1,850 acres, or about 121 football fields, but Toyota is saying it will be even bigger.
Toyota’s new US battery plant is set for an expansion
The first batteries rolled off the production line at Toyota’s new battery plant in Liberty, North Carolina, last Wednesday, marking a “pivotal moment” in the automaker’s nearly 70-year history in the US.
Toyota’s new plant houses 14 battery production lines, which will be used to power battery electric vehicles (BEVs), hybrids (HEVs), and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs).
At full capacity, the battery plant can produce 30 GWh per year. The plant is phasing in batteries imported from Japan through a joint venture with LG Electronics, which will power the Camry HEV, Corolla Cross HEV, and RAV4 HEV. It also ships hybrid battery modules to its Kentucky assembly plant and to another plant in Alabama, which it co-owns with Mazda.
Toyota’s battery plant is already massive, spanning about 121 football fields, but company executives are saying it will likely be even bigger than expected.
“Our plans are to go 70% electrified by 2030. So obviously that could fuel additional expansion here at the plant,” David Christ, head of the Toyota brand in North America, said during a media briefing on Wednesday (via Triad Business Journal) following a tour of the facility.
Building on its commitment, Toyota announced an additional $10 billion investment over the next five years in electrified mobility.
Toyota didn’t say exactly how it plans to invest the $10 billion, but the new battery plant is likely to see some of it. The battery modules that Toyota produces at the plant vary from hybrid to EV, but the cells are the same, enabling it to adjust based on demand.
It can also adapt to different battery types, which could possibly include solid-state batteries, according to Toyota’s plant president, Don Stewart.
Toyota, which has been one of the biggest laggards in the shift to all-electric vehicles, will continue pushing hybrids as it aims to overcome the new US tariffs.
The plant can supply batteries for around 600,000 hybrid vehicles a year while Toyota builds capacity for another 74,000 PHEVs and 45,000 EVs, including its first three-row electric SUV.
Starting next year, Toyota’s best-selling vehicle, the RAV4, will be sold exclusively as a hybrid. Toyota is also launching several new BEVs, including the C-HR and BZ Woodlands electric SUVs, as well as the 2026 electric Lexus ES.
Electrek’s Take
It’s not a surprise to see Toyota standing by hybrids at this point. What will be interesting is to see how Toyota’s new electric vehicles sell.
After solving many of the issues with its first EV, the bZ4X, will Toyota’s upcoming models sell? Several EVs, like the Hyundai IONIQ 5 and Chevy Equinox EV, have proven that an affordable electric car with enough range and features will sell.
With longer driving ranges, faster charging, and an improved interior and exterior design, Toyota’s upcoming electric vehicles are already a significant upgrade over the outgoing bZ4X. If Toyota sees EV sales improve, we could see production plans at the facility shift once again.
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Environment
Bluetti launches Elite 400 ‘luggage’ power station starting from exclusive $1,409, Rad Power RadWagon 4 e-bike at $1,299 low, more
We’re kicking off this week’s Green Deals with the launch of Bluetti’s Elite 400 Portable Power Station and bundles with exclusive savings, starting from $1,409. Right behind it, we have Rad Power’s RadWagon 4 Cargo e-bike dropping back to its $1,299 low for the first time since its 2020 launch, as well as EcoFlow’s latest early Black Friday flash sale that is offering the new DELTA 3 Max Plus Portable Power Station with a FREE TRAIL 200 DC Power Station at $1,099, among other offers (all ending tonight). We also have tools from Worx, Greenworks, and SKIL, and more waiting for you below. And don’t forget about the hangover deals from last week that are collected together at the bottom of the page, rounded up in our latest edition of Electrified Weekly.
Head below for other New Green Deals we’ve found today and, of course, Electrek’s best EV buying and leasing deals. Also, check out the new Electrek Tesla Shop for the best deals on Tesla accessories.
Bluetti launches new Elite 400 ‘luggage’ power station with up to 53% exclusive savings starting from $1,409
Running alongside its ongoing early Black Friday Sale, which includes returning exclusive lows on the Pioneer Na(Sodium) power station and others, we’ve now secured exclusive savings on Bluetti’s next big release, the Elite 400 Portable Power Station starting solo at $1,409.06 shipped, after using the code 9TO5TOYS6OFF at checkout. This new modular power solution will cost $2,999 at full price after these savings go, with this being quite the combined 53% markdown that saves you $1,590 off that rate and sets an impressive bar for future discounts down the line. Head below to learn more and/or browse the lineup of exclusive bundle offers we’re seeing too.
The new Bluetti Elite 400 power station is similar to Anker’s SOLIX F3800 series, but lacks the expansive capabilities at this time. Still, it brings quite the punch at its starting 3,840Wh LiFePO4 capacity, with nine output ports to connect devices and appliances for up to 3,900W of steady power delivery, surging as high as 5,200W. And it’s nice to see it come in a convenient, wheeled-and-handled design “that fits like luggage,” making it more manageable when taking it camping, on roadtrips, and more.
Like most of the Elite 400 power station’s counterparts and competitors these days, you’ll get a full array of in-app smart controls, as well as four primary means to top off the station’s battery after depletion. Using an AC outlet alone will have you back to 80% in about 1.9 hours, or you can wait 2.5 hours to reach full. There’s a max 1,000W solar input to top things off in up to six hours, while connecting that much solar input and using an AC outlet simultaneously can recharge to 80% in 70 minutes, and full in up to 1.8 hours. Picking up the bundle with the alternator charger gives you on-the-go juice-ups in 7.5 hours from empty.
***Note: Make sure to use the exclusive code 9TO5TOYS6OFF at checkout to score these prices below!
Bluetti Elite 400 launch deals:
- Elite 400 (3,840Wh) power station: $1,409 (Reg. $2,999)
- Elite 400 with alternator charger 1: $1,596 (Reg. $3,299)
- Elite 400 with 350W solar panel: $1,785 (Reg. $3,698)
- Elite 400 with 2x 200W solar panels: $1,879 (Reg. $3,798)
- Elite 400 with 2x 350W solar panels: $2,442 (Reg. $4,598)
As I mentioned, Bluetti has some really good early Black Friday deals right now, especially consider that the initial discounts of up to 55% are getting up to an additional 10% with our exclusive codes – all starting from $209. You’ll find deals like the brand’s other recent launch, the Pioneer Na(Sodium) power station back at its launch pricing starting from a $735 low with exclusive 8% savings.
Rad Power drops RadWagon 4 cargo e-bike to $1,299 Black Friday low for first time since launching (Save $500)
As part of its ongoing Black Friday Sale, Rad Power Bikes has given us the largest price cut on its RadWagon 4 Cargo e-bike that we haven’t seen since it launched back in 2020. You can now hop on this cargo-hauling commuter at $1,299 shipped for as long as supplies last. Normally priced at $1,799, we’ve mostly been seeing it get minor $100 or $200 discounts over 2025, or else just getting bundled gear at full price. The deal here gives you a $500 markdown that only matches its original pre-sale launch pricing from 2020, returning it to the all-time lowest rate we have ever tracked.
If you want to learn more about this cargo-hauling e-bike, be sure to check out our original coverage of this deal here.
EcoFlow offers new DELTA 3 Max Plus power station with a FREE TRAIL 200 DC unit at $1,099 in flash sale, more (ends tonight)
As part of its ongoing early Black Friday Sale, EcoFlow has another short-term flash sale that is ending tonight at midnight PST, providing up to 62% discounts on four offers for that timeframe, including the new DELTA 3 Max Plus power station that comes with a FREE Trail 200 DC 60,000mAh power station at $1,099 shipped, which sadly can’t use any of the extra savings codes from the overall sale. While it carries an $1,899 MSRP since releasing in September, it launched and has been regularly dropped down to $1,099 in the time since when apart of sales, which is where Amazon currently has it priced, though you won’t be getting the FREE Trail 200 DC station with it (valued at $200). We’ve only seen this rate beaten by its $1,044 launch deal (with a bonus savings code), so you’re looking at the next-best price here, especially bundled with the extra power station, giving you a total $1,000 in savings.
If you want to learn more about this all-new power station, or the other offers, be sure to check out our original coverage of this flash sale here before it ends tonight at midnight PST.
Make up to 100 cuts on one charge with Worx’s 20V 5-inch cordless mini chainsaw at $72.50 (Reg. up to $130)
Amazon is offering the Worx 20V 5-inch Mini Cordless Chainsaw at $72.50 shipped. While it carries a $160 MSRP direct from the brand, it has more often gone for $90 to $130 at Amazon this year, with other discounts over 2025 having mostly kept costs above $84, though there was a one-time fall to its $63 low in mid-September. Aside from that pricing, you’re looking at the next-best rate here today while this deal lasts, giving you $57.50 off the full price and allowing you to manage pruning and cutting in tighter spaces. You can also find its boosted 20V Nitro counterpart down at $109.99 shipped right now.
If you want to learn more about this handy compact tool, or its Nitro counterpart, be sure to check out our original coverage of these deals here.
Attachment-capable 40V Greenworks cordless string trimmer at best 2025 off-season price of $135 (Reg. $159, tool-only)
Amazon is offering the Greenworks 40V 16-Inch Attachment-Capable Cordless Gen 2 String Trimmer (tool only) at $135.30 shipped. It would normally cost you $180 at full price direct from the brand, though at Amazon, it’s been spending the time since May down at $159, with discounts only having gone as low as $146. Today’s deal gives you a $24 markdown off the going rate ($45 off the MSRP), landing it at the best price of the year and among its lowest rates overall – just $2 above the all-time low. Sadly, the battery-bundled package is keeping higher at $205.44 shipped right now.
If you want to learn more about this string trimmer, be sure to check out our original coverage of this deal here.
Tackle storm cleanup, firewood, and more with SKIL’s PWR CORE 40 14-inch cordless chainsaw kit at $142 (Reg. $199)
Amazon is offering the SKIL PWR CORE 40 14-inch 40V Lightweight Cordless Chainsaw at $142.40 shipped. Normally fetching $199 at full price, discounts over the year have almost entirely dropped costs to $149, though we did see it fall to its $139 low once during July’s Prime Day event. Today’s deal gives you a 28% markdown that cuts $57 off the going rate for the second-lowest price we have tracked – just $3 above the one-time low.
If you want to learn more about this chainsaw, be sure to check out our original coverage of this deal here.
Best Fall EV deals!
- Velotric Nomad 2X e-bike (camo) with DELTA 3 Plus station: $3,048 (Reg. $3,298)
- Velotric Nomad 2X e-bike (sage or fig) with DELTA 3 Plus station: $2,948 (Reg. $3,298)
- Velotric Nomad 2X Multi-Terrain Full Suspension e-bike w/ $96 bundle: $2,299 (Reg. $2,399)
- Heybike Hero 750W Mid-Drive Carbon-Fiber All-Terrain e-bike: $2,299 (Reg. $3,099)
- Rad Power Radster Road Commuter e-bike: $1,999 (Reg. $2,199)
- Rad Power Radster Trail Off-Road e-bike: $1,999 (Reg. $2,199)
- Lectric XPedition 2.0 35Ah Cargo e-bike w/ $893 bundle: $1,999 (Reg. $2,761)
- Ride1Up TrailRush German Mid-Drive e-bike (first discount): $1,995 (Reg. $2,095)
- Heybike Hero 1,000W Carbon-Fiber All-Terrain e-bike: $1,899 (Reg. $2,599)
- Tenways Wayfarer e-bike with $277 bundle (launch deal): $1,899 (Reg. $2,199)
- Velotric Fold 1 Plus e-bike (gray or white) with DELTA 2 station: $1,898 (Reg. $2,198)
- Velotric Fold 1 Plus e-bike (mango or blue) with DELTA 2 station: $1,828 (Reg. $2,198)
- Velotric Summit 1 Versatile Multi-Terrain e-bike with $160 bundle: $1,799 (Reg. $1,999)
- Aventon Aventure 3 Smart All-Terrain e-bike (first discount): $1,799 (Reg. $1,999)
- Aventon Aventure 3 Smart Step-Through All-Terrain e-bike (first discount): $1,799 (Reg. $1,999)
- Lectric XP Trike2 750 Long-Range eTrike with $558 bundle: $1,799 (Reg. $2,357)
- Rad Power RadExpand 5 Plus Folding e-bike (lowest price): $1,699 (Reg. $1,899)
- Lectric XPedition 2.0 26Ah Cargo e-bike w/ $744 bundle: $1,799 (Reg. $2,543)
- Aventon Level 3 Step-Over Smart Commuter e-bike (first discount): $1,699 (Reg. $1,899)
- Aventon Level 3 Step-Through Smart Commuter e-bike (first discount): $1,699 (Reg. $1,899)
- Lectric XPeak 2.0 Long-Range Off-Road e-bike with $583 bundle: $1,699 (Reg. $2,282)
- Rad Power RadWagon 4 Cargo e-bike with extra battery: $1,599 (Reg. $1,799)
- Aventon Abound Cargo e-bike: $1,599 (Reg. $1,999)
- Ride1Up VORSA Modular Multi-Use e-bike: $1,595 (Reg. $1,695)
- Rad Power RadRunner Cargo Utility e-bike with extra battery: $1,499 (No pirce cut)
- Lectric XPeak 2.0 Standard Off-Road e-bike with $434 bundle: $1,499 (Reg. $1,933)
- Lectric XP Trike2 with $257 bundle: $1,499 (Reg. $1,756)
- Rad Power RadWagon 4 Cargo e-bike: $1,499 (Reg. $1,799)
- Aventon Aventure 2 All-Terrain e-bike: $1,499 (Reg. $1,999)
- Lectric XPedition 2.0 13Ah Cargo e-bike with $346 bundle: $1,399 (Reg. $1,745)
- Aventon Level 2 Commuter e-bike: $1,499 (Reg. $1,899)
- Rad Power RadRover 6 Plus Step-Thru Fat Tire e-bike: $1,399 (Reg. $1,599)
- Heybike ALPHA All-Terrain e-bike with $266 bundle: $1,299 (Reg. $1,699)
- Lectric XPress 750 Commuter e-bikes with $439 bundle: $1,299 (Reg. $1,703)
- Lectric XP4 750 LR Folding Utility e-bikes with up to $514 bundle: $1,299 (Reg. $1,813)
- Heybike Hauler Dual-Battery Cargo e-bike (new low): $1,299 (Reg. $1,899)
- Rad Power RadWagon 4 Cargo e-bike: $1,299 (Reg. $1,799)
- Heybike Mars 2.0 Folding Fat-Tire e-bike with extra battery: $1,199 (Reg. $1,848)
- Lectric XP Lite 2.0 JW Black LR e-bike with $449 bundle: $1,099 (Reg. $1,548)
- Heybike Hauler Dual-Battery Cargo e-bike with $89+ bundle: $1,099 (Reg. $1,413)
- Lectric XP4 Standard Folding Utility e-bikes with $326 bundle: $999 (Reg. $1,325)
- Lectric XP Lite 2.0 Long-Range e-bikes with $449 bundles: $999 (Reg. $1,448)
- Heybike Mars 2.0 Folding Fat-Tire e-bike with Black Friday gift: $999 (Reg. $1,499)
- Heybike Ranger S Folding Fat-Tire e-bike with Black Friday gift: $999 (Reg. $1,499)
Best new Green Deals landing this week
The savings this week are also continuing to a collection of other markdowns. To the same tune as the offers above, these all help you take a more energy-conscious approach to your routine. Winter means you can lock in even better off-season price cuts on electric tools for the lawn while saving on EVs and tons of other gear.
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Tesla has settled another lawsuit involving its Autopilot driver-assist system, which is alleged to have caused a crash. This time, a 2020 Model Y on Autopilot crashed into a stationary police vehicle in Texas.
This is Tesla’s fourth known settlement in lawsuits involving Autopilot crashes since losing its first trial earlier this year.
The case, James Tran vs. Tesla, Inc., was filed in Harris County, Texas, after an incident on November 15, 2020.
According to the lawsuit, James Tran was traveling on the I-10 freeway in his 2020 Model Y with the Autopilot feature engaged. Up ahead on the same road, three Harris County Constable (police) vehicles were blocking several lanes of traffic for a prior accident.
Tran’s Model Y, while operating on Autopilot, collided with one of the stationary constables’ vehicles.
In his petition, Tran alleged that Tesla’s “Autopilot… system safety features failed to detect” the emergency vehicles or “function in any way to avoid or warn of the hazard”. His lawyers claimed the system had a “failure to warn” about its known “inability to detect emergency cars with flashing lights” and sought over $1 million in damages.
As it almost always does, Tesla’s defense centered on blaming the driver. In a March 2024 “No-Evidence” motion, Tesla’s lawyers alleged that Tran had been “gambling and drinking at a casino” before the 2:40 a.m. crash and “dozed off” behind the wheel.
From the beginning of the case, Tesla’s legal strategy was to argue that Tran was the “sole cause” of his injuries. By 2024, they argued he had “no evidence” and, crucially, “no experts” to prove Autopilot was at fault.
Tesla sought dismissal, but the judge allowed it to proceed, and the case was set for trial on November 11.
Despite this aggressive defense, Tesla didn’t let a jury decide the case.
Days before the trial was set to start, Tesla’s lawyers quietly filed a “Notice of Settlement” on November 6, 2025. The document simply states that “the parties in the above-captioned case have reached a settlement”. The terms, as usual, are not disclosed in the filing.
Shortly after Tran’s crash, Tesla was investigated by NHTSA regarding Autopilot-equipped vehicles crashing into emergency vehicles. The federal agency found 11 incidents that resulted in 17 injuries and one death.
NHTSA eventually concluded that Tesla’s driver monitoring system for Autopilot was “inadequate” and Tesla had to issue a recall.
However, NHTSA launched another investigation into the recall fix itself, and other similar crashes have occurred since, including one into a police car last month.
The floodgates are open
As we reported, the floodgates of lawsuits related to Tesla Autopilot/FSD crashes are open after Tesla lost its first case that went to trial earlier this year.
For the first time, a case went to trial before a jury, and they assigned a third of the blame for the crash to Tesla for the role Autopilot played. The rest of the blame was put on the driver, who had already settled with the victims and their families before the Tesla trial began.
The jury awarded the plaintiffs $243 million. The automaker has made clear its intentions to appeal the verdict.
Before the trial, the plaintiffs offered Tesla a $60 million settlement, but the company refused.
The trial was costly for Tesla, not only because of the more than $240 million award, but also because of the information that came out during the trial, which didn’t make Tesla look good.
There are dozens of other cases currently going through the court process, and now they can take advantage of what was learned through the trial.
To avoid further discovery, Tesla appears to be increasingly willing to settle these cases.
With the Tran case, it now marks at least Tesla’s fourth known settlement of lawsuits involving Autopilot/FSD crashes since losing the trial in August.
Electrek’s Take
As I have been highlighting over the last few months, this is just the beginning. We are just now starting to see cases that come from crashes that happened in 2018-2019-2020 go to trial.
It’s a long process, but we know that the number of crashes involving Autopilot and FSD significantly ramped up in 2021-2025 due to higher volumes and the launch of FSD.
All these accidents, many of them unfortunately fatal, are going to go through the legal process, and Tesla will have to settle for billions of dollars when everything is said and done.
Simply blaming the driver for abusing Tesla’s ADAS system is not working anymore. Tesla is consistently taking at least part of the blame for misleading drivers into believing its ADAS systems are more than they are or for their monitoring system’s lack.
In fact, there’s another similar lawsuit in the same county as the Tran lawsuit, which is about to go to trial unless Tesla settles it soon. It involves a drunk driver on Autopilot crashing into 5 police officers, injuring them in the process. The officers are suing Tesla with a similar approach to that of Tran in this case.
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