Crypto news website The Block has been secretly funded for more than a year by money that has been sent to its CEO LLCs from SBF’s Alameda Research. Three loans were made: $12 million to Company, $15 million to The Block, and $ 16 million to the CEO to buy real estate in the Bahamas. Reported by Axios
The ex-CEO of The Block, Michael McCaffrey, resigned and stepped down from the board, but he is still the majority shareholder of this company.
What Relation Between Sam Bankman-Fired with The Block?
According to a recent report by Axios, last year in February, the BlocK CEO approached Sam Bankman-Fired for a loan to finance the buyout.
Total of three loans from SBF’s trading firm, Alameda On April 21, McCaffrey used the first $12 million loan to buyout The Block via an LLC named “MJMCCAFFREY LLC.”
On January 20, 2022, Alameda makes a $15 million loan to The Block Through LLC, known as Lonely Road.
The third, for $16 million in the spring of 2022, was spent by The Block CEO Michael McCaffrey to buy a Bahamas apartment, Reported.
After these transaction details became public, The Block platform CEO McCaffrey resigned and departed the firm. Bobby Moran, the block platform’s chief revenue officer, confirmed McCaffrey’s resignation. McCaffrey will also resign from Company’s board.
“The Block, a media company that says it covers crypto news independently, has been secretly funded for over a year with money funneled to The Block’s CEO from the disgraced Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency trading firm,” said Axios
After the news comes out The company said they did not know about the Mike McCaffrey loan and our employees
Read More: SEC wants firms to say if they have any Exposure to Cryptocurrency
The Block CEO and Ex-CEO Statements
Bobby Moran, The Block’s chief revenue officer, will step into the role of CEO, effective immediately, according to a company statement.
“No one at The Block had any knowledge of this financial arrangement besides Mike. From our own experience, we have seen no evidence that Mike ever sought to improperly influence the newsroom or research teams, particularly in their coverage of SBF, FTX, and Alameda Research.” Moran said in a medium blog statement.
Ex-CEO McCaffrey has already tweeted about the relationship between SBF and Company, claiming that the company is unaware of my financial ties to SBF’s Alameda subsidiary.
“I didn’t disclose the loan to anyone. Absolutely no one at The Block knew about the financial arrangement between my holding company and SBF, including the editorial and the research teams.” said in a Twitter statement
4/ I didn’t disclose the loan to anyone. Absolutely no one at The Block knew about the financial arrangement between my holding company and SBF, including the editorial and the research teams.
— Mike McCaffrey (@McCaffrMike) December 9, 2022
Some Interesting Tweets
Autism Capital’s Twitter handles shared an FTX insider story in which Larry and Frank, who is a researcher at The Block Company, were not aware of the funding between SBF and his company.
A confirmed FTX insider provides more color on the relationship between FTX and The Block: pic.twitter.com/IS5aiXIqzx
— Autism Capital 🧩 (@AutismCapital) December 9, 2022
Eric Wall Posted the tweet that the company employee had been paying when people got rekt on the FTX exchange. then Larry responds Eric on Twitter
I think the cherry on top is that I accidentally leaked my boss's secret loans from Alameda on Tuesday unknowingly. It's in this sheethttps://t.co/pABsGmD3wG
— Larry Cermak 🫡 (@lawmaster) December 9, 2022
Company Seniors Statement After FTX and The Block Relation.
Larry Cermak, The Block’s VP of research, stated that “Needless to say I didn’t benefit from Mike’s personal loans in any way. In fact, I lost roughly the same amount on FTX as I made from The Block’s compensation and bonuses since joining 4 years ago. I never borrowed money from anyone either.
Last few months really can’t get much worse. Got fucked by FTX (after naively trusting them like a complete idiot) and now also got fucked by the CEO. Just like everyone else at The Block, I just found out about this. https://t.co/C0qv6Vvvcl
— Larry Cermak 🫡 (@lawmaster) December 9, 2022
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