Crypto news site Bobby Moran of The Block has announced that it will succeed Mike McCaffrey as CEO of the platform after the latter came under fire over his financial ties to Alameda Research.
Like Moran in a Message As of yesterday, Dec. 9, McCaffrey had taken out two $27 million loans from Alameda Research last year to refurbish The Block. Alameda is the infamous subsidiary of FTX, which as its hedge fund was instrumental in the trading platform’s shady activities. assios reported in the meantime also from a third loan of 16 million US dollars with which McCaffrey would have bought a property in the Bahamas.
Moran points out that the former CEO failed to disclose these financial deals to the rest of The Block’s senior management team, which he says was a “huge mistake.” As a result, the rest of management has now called for McCaffrey to step down.
“Nobody at The Block knew about these financial deals except Mike,” Moran said. And again: “In our opinion there is no evidence that Mike attempted to influence our editorial staff and research in any way, especially not in the matters of SBF, FTX and Alameda Research”.
According to McCaffrey’s LinkedIn profile, he was only named CEO in April 2020, having previously served as COO and editor-in-chief. In April 2021, the former CEO then has all shares owned by non-employees boughtmaking him the majority owner of the site.
“I am absolutely stunned when I heard the news this afternoon,” current editor-in-chief Frank Chaparro said of the situation. commented. He explains, “My shock is mixed with contempt at the treachery, greed and secrecy Mike has dealt with. It is literally scum. He kept each of us in the dark.
Clear SBF was a reckless jerk, as was our former CEO
— Frank Chaparro (@fintechfrank) December 9, 2022
Ironically, Larry Cermak, VP of research at The Block, had a list of FTX investments on his Twitter profile on Dec. 6 divided. However, he did not disclose his news site’s links to the insolvent trading platform because they were apparently unknown to him.
“Mike hasn’t asked me or anyone else to cover FTX and SBF in any particular way,” Cermak told Axios. He adds: “We had complete freedom in our tasks.”
