The company’s CEO, Michael McCaffrey has resigned as a result of the loans coming to light, The Block confirmed.
Crypto media site The Block was secretly funded over the last two years by Sam Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research, The Block confirmed on Friday.
The Block’s CEO Michael McCaffrey immediately resigned after the loans came to light, and will also step down from The Block’s board. The company said no one at the company had any knowledge of the loans except for McCaffrey.
According to The Block, McCaffrey received three loans for a total of $43 million from 2021 through this year. The first loan was for $12 million in 2021 to buy out other investors in the media company, at which time McCaffrey took over as CEO. The second was for $15 million in January to fund day-to-day operations, while the third was for $16 million earlier this year for McCaffrey to purchase personal real estate in the Bahamas, according to The Block.
Bobby Moran, The Block’s chief revenue officer, will step into the role of CEO, effective immediately, according to the report.
“No one at The Block had any knowledge of this financial arrangement besides Mike,” Moran said in a statement. “From our own experience, we have seen no evidence that Mike ever sought to improperly influence the newsroom or research teams, particularly in their coverage of SBF, FTX and Alameda Research.”
The Block’s editor-at-large Frank Chaparro said in a tweet that he was “gutted by this news, which was briefed to the company this afternoon, adding that McCaffrey “kept every single one of us in the dark.”
The Block is a competitor to CoinDesk.
Axios previously reported on the news of the loans.
UPDATE (Dec. 9, 19:45 UTC): Updated with additional background throughout.
