SBF Took $546M Loan From Alameda to Buy Robinhood Shares

FXT founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) borrowed over $546 million from his trading house, Alameda Research, to purchase a 7.6% stake in Robinhood earlier this year.

According to an affidavit filed in the High Court of Justice Antigua and Barbuda on December 12 before the arrest of SBF, the former billionaire teamed up with FTX co-founder Zixiao (Gary) Wang to borrow the funds. They were used to support Emergent Fidelity Technologies, another FTX affiliate, to purchase the 56 million HOODs in May.

SBF Legally Owns 90% of the Robinhood Shares 

The loan was evidenced in four promissory notes, which revealed that SBF and Wang each borrowed approximately $317 million and $176 million from Alameda on April 30, 2022, and May 15, 2022, respectively.

Bankman-Fried received an additional $19 million from the firm on the same day Wang took the loan, representing a total of $554 million.

“In order to capitalize Emergent Fidelity Technologies so it could make the investments into Robinhood, Gary and I agreed to borrow funds from Alameda Research LTD,” reads the court document.

The funds were then given to Alameda to aid its purchase of the shares. However, the trading firm spent around $650 million to purchase the stakes, and SBF claimed that the additional funding came from Wang.

According to the former FTX CEO, Emergent does not own any other assets besides the Robinhood shares at the time of purchase.

The court document also revealed that Bankman-Fried owned 90% of the shares, while Wang had only 10% of the assets due to the varied contributions.

SBF, BlockFi, and Shimon Contest for Ownership

The shares were later used by SBF and Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research, as a pledge to obtain a loan from the crypto lending company BlockFi.

Interestingly, three parties are now fighting for ownership of the shares after FTX and BlockFi filed for bankruptcy last month.

SBF, BlockFi, and Yonathan Ben Shimon, one of FTX’s creditors, have filed separate legal actions in various jurisdictions to claim the Robinhood stake.

Earlier this month, Bankman-Fried, currently under house arrest, filed a motion at a United States bankruptcy court seeking assistance to procure the assets now held by the brokerage company ED&F Man Capital Markets (EDFM).

BlockFi, on the other hand, claims that the assets belonged to it, noting that the stake was pledged to the company as collateral on November 9. On that note, the crypto lender sued Bankman-Fried, requesting that he honor the deal.

The last claimant, Yonathan Ben Shimon, an FTX creditor, alleged that the common stakes were purchased using customers’ assets, which were part of the bitcoins he deposited on the exchange years before the company’s unfortunate end.