Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of collapsed crypto firm FTX and its trading arm Alameda Research, secretly invested in a crypto news site, Axios reported Friday.
Axios said the news site, The Bloc’s now-former CEO, Michael McCaffrey received money from Alameda. Employees were previously unaware of the investment, Axios reported, but the revelation could raise conflict-of-interest concerns. The site hadn’t ever disclosed the connections, Axios reported.
Meanwhile, The Block’s revenue chief, Bobby Moran, said in a statement on Friday that McCaffrey had resigned from the company and that Moran had stepped into the CEO role.
“Just before Thanksgiving, Mike told me that in early 2021 he was evaluating ways to merge, sell or restructure The Block,” Moran wrote in a blog post. “Mike decided to restructure The Block by obtaining financing in the form of loans from Sam Bankman-Fried to LLCs that Mike owns and controls. Those loans, amounting to $27M, were made by Alameda Research and the funds were used to effect the restructuring and provide working capital directly to The Block.”
