Bankman-Fried’s Secured Personal Stake in Robinhood by Controversial Alameda Loan

The dirt surrounding the disgraced former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is coming to light. According to court records, ‘SBF’ borrowed hundreds of millions of dollars from Alameda Research to acquire his personal stake in trading platform Robinhood Markets (HOOD).

In an affidavit filed with a Caribbean court before to his arrest, Bankman-Fried stated that he and FTX co-founder Gary Wang borrowed $546 million from Alameda using promissory notes in April and May. They used that money to fund Emergent Fidelity Technologies Ltd., the shell business that purchased a 7.6% share in Robinhood in May.

The affidavit throws a fresh twist into the three-way fight for the 56 million Robinhood shares. BlockFi, FTX Group, and Bankman-Fried himself have all sought to claim the shares, which might be worth more than $440 million.

BlockFi, which, like FTX, has filed for bankruptcy, claimed in a court statement that it was entitled the rights to the Robinhood shares as a result of an agreement signed by Bankman-Fried in early November. According to the filing on Tuesday, the shares were pledged as security against a loan taken out by Alameda Research, the same entity whose funds were used to acquire the shares in the first place.

FTX exchange went down in November in what already are the most historic seven days in crypto, and will forever shape the crypto markets, but not necessarily in a bad way.