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Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research embroiled in the meltdown of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX, reportedly was spotted at a coffee shop in Manhattan over the weekend, leading some social media users to speculate whether she’ll soon be arrested—or if she’s cooperating with authorities.
Photos that appear to be Ellison, posted by the popular anonymous Twitter account @AutismCapital, seem to show her ordering at Ground Support Cafe on West Broadway in SoHo. Next to Ellison in one of the photos is a dog that others on Twitter have claimed is the Goldendoodle “Gopher” who lived with Bankman-Fried and FTX employees at their Bahamas penthouse.
Fortune could not independently verify that the person in the photo was Ellison. A Twitter user named Daniel Mentado, who claimed to be a manager at Ground Support Cafe, confirmed the authenticity of the photograph but couldn’t say for sure it was her. An employee at Ground Support Cafe told Fortune on Monday that the business had no comment on whether Ellison had visited, but confirmed that Mentado worked there. Another crypto influencer, Jes (@CryptoNCoffeee), also said she had called the coffee shop and confirmed Mentado was an employee.
Attempts by Fortune to reach Ellison were unsuccessful.
Ground Support Cafe is about a 15-minute walk from both the FBI’s New York City office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, leading some to ask whether Ellison was meeting with federal authorities.
Ellison was thought to be living in Hong Kong after FTX collapsed last month. As FTX was facing a self-made liquidity crisis, she admitted to a group of employees while in Hong Kong that Alameda Research had taken customer funds from FTX to paper over shortfalls in its accounts, according to the New York Times.
In response to a tweet by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), the chair of the House Financial Services Committee, SBF tweeted Sunday that he eventually would testify and explain what happened with FTX.
“Once I have finished learning and reviewing what happened,” he wrote, “I would feel like it was my duty to appear before the committee and explain.”
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