Alameda Research Secretly Funded Crypto Media The Block
SBF-related high-profile news is far from over. This time, the media platform The Block claims the spotlight. It turned out that CEO Michael McCaffrey received secret loans from Alameda Research loans.
On December 9, Bobby Moran, the Head of Revenues, officially stepped into the position of the media platform’s CEO. He was the first who learned about backdoor funding, which lasted from 2021.
On his Medium blog, Moran said that he became aware of the secret arrangements between McCaffrey and Sam Bankman-Fried right before Thanksgiving. According to the now former CEO, the decision to borrow money was made after evaluating various ways to restructure the project.
McCaffrey decided to buy out the remaining investors and loaned $12 million from SBF for this purpose. At the same time, he began day-to-day operations as CEO.
In late 2021 and early 2022, McCaffrey also borrowed money from Sam for both company needs and personal expenses. He spent $15 million to finance the media’s day-to-day operations, and bought a personal property in the Bahamas for $16 million.
This news came as both a shock and disappointment to The Block leadership team. Mike’s decision to take out a loan from SBF and not disclose that information demonstrates a serious lack of judgment. It undermines The Block’s reputation and credibility, especially that of our reporters and researchers, as well as our efforts at industry-leading transparency,wrote Moran.
The media platform team asked McCaffrey to step down, and transfer all operational and managerial responsibilities to other employees. He will also no longer be a member of the board of directors. It is expected that the board will be comprised of three people, with Moran being one of them.
The main task of the new CEO is to convince the crypto media audience and business partners that secret financing did not affect the info flow. In his post, Moran draws readers' attention to the fact that no one in the company knew about the McCaffrey's and Bankman-Fried’s arrangements.
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. When this news goes public, our work will be meticulously scrutinized.
The Block's Director of news Frank Chaparro shared his take on the news in a tweet:
I'm absolutely gutted by this news, which was briefed to the company this afternoon. Underpinning my shock are feelings of utter disgust and betrayal by Mike’s actions, greed, lack of disclosure. He's literal scum. He kept every single one of us in the dark.
Source: Twitter
Chaparro claims that if he knew what was happening, he would "not only reported it and challenged his actions, but also called for an immediate change in leadership." However, at the moment, the editor is angry and determined to report everything as objectively as possible to the industry "without fear or prejudice."
What about McCaffrey? He accepted the team's decision to resign and leave the board of directors, calling it painful but fair. On Twitter, he repeated Moran's words about loans as a necessary measure that none of the company’s employees knew about.
My rationale – undoubtedly poor judgment in hindsight – was that knowledge of the loan might be seen to compromise the objectivity of their coverage of SBF and his related entities.
Source: Twitter
McCaffrey says he never tried to influence the news on FTX, Alameda, or SBF. Understanding the reaction of the team, he apologizes to his colleagues and leaves The Block so as not to undermine the trust in the platform and colleagues.
