The crypto news platform The Block, a giant international-level party, was secretly funded by Sam Bankman-Fried’s companies. It is striking that the CEO of Block also received staff money from Alameda Research to write positively about Bankman-Fried’s companies.
Millions of dollars
By the way, these are not small amounts, but millions of dollars. If we The Block itself believe it, CEO Michael McCaffrey received three loans totaling $43 million from 2021 to this year. The first loan was $12 million, which McCaffrey obtained to buy out other investors in the news platform. He then took over as CEO.
The second loan was $15 million to fund day-to-day operations. After that, McCaffrey got another $16 million loan to buy real estate in the Bahamas, according to The Block’s story. Immediately after the loans came to light, McCaffrey decided to leave. Bobby Moran, who already worked at The Block, takes over from McCaffrey.
“No one knew about this”
It is striking that no one at The Block knew of these agreements, except former CEO McCaffrey. “In our experience, McCaffrey never tried to influence news production or direct investigative teams, even when it came to SBF, FTX or Alameda Research,” said new CEO Moran.
It therefore appears that the acquisition of The Block by Alameda Research was a long-term plan. In principle, SBF did not need the positive press last year either. Everything was going well for the stock exchange platform, or so it seemed to the outside world, so that influence was not necessary.
McCaffrey himself also indicates that he never tried to influence the news flow about FTX, Alameda or SBF. Those are nice words, but of course they mean nothing if you get millions from those parties under the table. In the end, that money was transferred to McCaffrey for a reason.