Sam Bankman-Fried's defense lawyer gave a snooze-worthy cross-examination of key witness Caroline Ellison in criminal trial

• Sam Bankman-Fried's defense attorneys have yet to demonstrate a clear strategy.
• Their cross of Caroline Ellison, arguably the biggest witness in the case, was noticeably repetitive.

It's been a bumpy start for disgraced crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried's defense team.

Ex-girlfriend and ex-Alameda-CEO Caroline Ellison returned to the witness stand in Manhattan federal court on Thursday for a cross-examination frequently interrupted with objections and sidebars.

Attorney Mark Cohen, representing Bankman-Fried, skipped from topic to topic, quizzing Ellison on various FTX accounts, his client's work personality, Ellison's balance sheets at Alameda, and her cooperation agreement with the government.

Ellison, clad in a plum purple dress and blazer for her third and final day of trial testimony, answered directly but wasn't afraid to let him know when she didn't recall a detail exactly as Cohen phrased it.

Ellison, widely been considered the most important witness of the trial (unless Bankman-Fried decides to testify on his own behalf), testified about how, in the summer of 2022 as cryptocurrency prices were cratering, she felt trapped. She said she recognized that her nightmare scenario — where falling crypto prices would lead lenders to recall their loans, drastically increasing their exposure to disaster — had come to pass.

At around that time, Ellison said, she told Bankman-Fried she wanted to quit as the CEO of Alameda. She ultimately stayed at his urging, saying she didn't want Alameda and FTX to collapse.

For his part, Cohen dipped into some personal topics but didn't get too deep, at one point mentioning another romantic relationship between Ellison and an employee at FTX and Alameda, as well as Ellison's lack of appetite for big risks compared to SBF.

After their on-again-off-again relationship definitively ended in 2022, Ellison said it was difficult to communicate with Bankman-Fried.

The former CEO of FTX's sister company Alameda Research, Ellison pleaded guilty to seven financial fraud and conspiracy charges in December. She quickly agreed to work with prosecutors, landing a cooperation agreement that she hoped would result in a lesser sentence, according to her testimony. The maximum sentence for her seven charges total 110 years in prison.

At one point, Cohen honed in on details from a November 2022 FBI raid on Ellison's parent's home, where she was staying after returning from the Bahamas. In response to Cohen's questioning, Ellison admitted that she and her then-boyfriend, an unnamed individual who she said also worked at Alameda and FTX, were present at her parents' home during the raid.

After dropping breadcrumbs about the mystery man, Cohen changed topics in his questioning.

He also faced objections from the prosecution, who argued he was repeating facts established during their direct questioning. Judge Lewis Kaplan agreed at different points and reiterated his previous directives to move things along.

Ellison's testimony sprang back to life when Cohen wrapped up and Assistant US Attorney Danielle Sassoon returned to the lectern to ask her more questions, prompting Ellison to explain how Bankman-Fried begged her not to quit.

"He told me I couldn't," Ellison said. "I was too important to quit."