Sam Bankman-Fried’s Alameda owed Voyager much more than we thought

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—by Protos Staff
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New court documents suggest Sam Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research had much closer ties to now-defunct crypto lending platform Voyager Digital than previously thought, CNBC reports.

Trading outfit Alameda reportedly owed Voyager $370 million. Yet during bankruptcy court proceedings, documents appear to show that SBF’s firm borrowed much more, to the tune of $1.6 billion.

Voyager’s December 2021 financial books reveal the loan was made to an entity in the British Virgin Islands — Alameda is the only counterparty registered there, according to CNBC. The documents, made public thanks to Voyager’s stock trading in Canada before its bankruptcy, reveal the crypto asset loan had rates from 1% to 11%.

Three months later, in March 2022, loan balances dropped to $728 million, then to $377 million in June.

When it went bust, SBF’s firm and FTX jointly offered a $500 million bailout, comprised of $200 million in fiat and USDC as well as $300 million in bitcoin at the time. However, the deal stipulated Voyager could only cash out $75 million over the course of a month.

Read more: How Sam Bankman-Fried became crypto’s curliest billionaire in 4 years

Alameda avoided regulators by shedding stake in Voyager 

SBF was already the majority stakeholder in Voyager to the tune of 11.56%, acquired for $110 million over two investments. When the deal was offered, he took to Twitter in a way that Voyager’s lawyers have described as trying to create leverage for the deal.

Joshua Sussberg, an attorney part of Voyager’s legal team, told the court SBF “wore many hats” during the lender’s rise and fall to bankruptcy. Speaking of the Alameda chief:

“Parties in our process have expressly made concerns aware to us that FTX has a leg up and is working behind the scenes to force its way,” he said. “I want to assure all parties, the court and our customers, that we will not stand for that.”

On the day the $500 million bailout was complete — when Alameda’s $110 million investment was worth about $17 million — it shed 4.5 million shares to avoid having to report it to Canadian securities regulators.

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