FTX co-founders Sam Bankman-Fried and Gary Wang borrowed millions of dollars from Alameda Research to acquire a 7.6% stake in Robinhood.
In an affidavit filed with the high court in Antigua and Barbuda, Bankman-Fried said that he and Wang had borrowed $546 million from Alameda through four promissory notes issued between April and May.
The funds were utilized to capitalize Emergent Fidelity Technologies, a shell company owned by Bankman-Fried incorporated in Antigua and Barbuda. An SEC filing from May shows that Emergent purchased 56 million Robinhood shares which amounted to a 7.6% stake in the trading platform.
Bankman-Fried’s claims of ownership over the Robinhood shares comes after crypto lender BlockFi and FTX’s liquidators made their own claims earlier this month. In a complaint filed against Emergent, BlockFi said that the Robinhood shares were pledged as collateral against a loan from Alameda Research in a deal signed in November. The bankrupt crypto lender argued that it had the rights to take custody of these shares given that Emergent defaulted on its obligations.
Meanwhile, FTX liquidators sought to block any other parties from gaining control over the shares, which were valued at approximately $450 million at the time of writing.
In a motion filed in a U.S. bankruptcy court on Dec. 22, the FTX liquidators said that the fact that multiple creditors are all fighting for rights to the shares emphasizes why the assets should remain frozen until issues are resolved in the bankruptcy court.
“BlockFi scrambled to protect itself from impending losses on antecedent loans by threatening to seek remedies against Alameda if Alameda did not pledge additional collateral for those loans,” wrote the FTX liquidators in the complaint.
