According to transactions identified in a court document, John Samuel Trabucco, the former CEO of Alameda Research alongside Caroline Ellison, used company funds to purchase a yacht. The document also shows large payments to company executives and to Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF).
$2.5m yacht for former head of Alameda Research
After studying a court document listing, among other things, Alameda Research’s transactions in favour of its executives in the year leading up to bankruptcy, our colleagues at Cointelegraph noted that one of them involved the purchase of a yacht.
Turn to page 49 to see the payment of more than $2.5 million to the American Yacht Group, which, as its name suggests, sells yachts. The document indicates that the person involved in this transaction is John Samuel Trabucco, the former co-CEO of Alameda Research alongside Caroline Ellison:
John Samuel Trabucco yacht deal
On 24 August 2022, John Samuel Trabucco announced that he was handing over the running of the company to Caroline Ellison, who wished him “a good time on his boat” :
It’s been an incredibly formative experience working with @AlamedaTrabucco I’ve missed having him around in recent months, but I’m proud of all the other Alameda employees who have stepped up and more excited than ever about our future. I hope he has a great time on his boat! https://t.co/HqA2gz0FvL
– Caroline (@carolinecapital) August 24, 2022
While the legitimacy of the funds used to finance the vessel could be called into question, FTX’s debtors, who signed the document, made it clear at the outset that in view of the extensive investigative work involved, the accuracy of all the data could not be guaranteed 100%:
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“As set out in more detail below, the Debtors cannot confirm that the information provided is complete and accurate, although they have made reasonable efforts to ensure the accuracy and completeness of such financial information. “
Beyond the purchase of the yacht, the dossier also lists numerous transactions, such as the various Alameda Research executives who each received several million dollars. There was also more than $491 million paid to Emergent Fidelity Technologies, the company owned 90% by Sam Bankman-Fried and 10% by Gary Wang, which was used in particular to finance the purchase of Robinhood shares.
SBF alone received a total of more than $905 million in cash for transactions between 14 January and 3 October 2022. Between Alameda Research and FTX, the latter is said to have paid itself more than $2.2 billion.
