Home » Ex-CEO of The Block media was funded by Sam Bankman-Fried

Ex-CEO of The Block media was funded by Sam Bankman-Fried

by Patricia

In order to restructure the crypto media The Block, its CEO Michael McCaffrey would have sought funding from Sam Bankman-Fried without informing his employees. As a result, he was forced to resign with immediate effect.

Sam Bankman-Fried had funded The Block CEO

This is bad publicity, which our fellow cryptocurrency media specialist The Block would certainly have done without. Indeed, it turns out that its CEO Michael McCaffrey had been financed by Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) via Alameda Research, without the knowledge of all his employees.

Michael McCaffrey, who has since been forced to resign with immediate effect, is said to have revealed his information to his successor Bobby Moran shortly before 24 November last.

This case dates back to 2021, when a restructuring plan was launched at The Block to make the media independent from its original investors. In total, this would involve three loans. A first loan of 12 million dollars would have been used to buy out these investors.

Later, in January of this year, a second loan of $15 million would have been used to finance the day-to-day operations of The Block. Finally, a third loan of $16 million would have been used to purchase real estate in the Bahamas.

Press freedom under attack

In response to the revelations, The Block said that only Michael McCaffrey knew about the transactions, and that he used other companies he owned to receive funding from Alameda Research. The media condemned these actions:

This news came as both a shock and a disappointment to the management team at The Block. Mike’s decision to take out a loan from SBF and not disclose this information shows a serious lack of judgment. It undermines the reputation and credibility of The Block, especially of our journalists […]. “

Furthermore, The Block claims that, to its knowledge, its former CEO did not seek to influence the editorial line in favour of Sam Bankman-Fried.

However, this is not the feeling of Changpeng Zhao (CZ), the CEO of Binance, who jumped at the chance to say that this would explain why The Block would have been hard on his company for no apparent reason:

At a time when transparency is the order of the day, we are discovering day by day the extent of the ramifications of the defunct FTX empire, as well as all the questionable actions that have been committed.

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