Voyager subpoenas FTX’s inner circle over Alameda loan
Bankrupt crypto broker Voyager Digital, represented by law firm Kirkland & Ellis, is seeking court approval to subpoena Sam Bankman-Fried’s inner circle, as well as Alameda Research’s former executives.
Voyager’s lawyers have sent a subpoena to former FTX and Alameda staff including Sam Bankman-Fried, Alameda CEO, Caroline Ellison, FTX co-founder, Gary Wang and FTX’s head of product, Ramnik Arora. Among other things, they want those executives to disclose documents and communications related to Alameda’s loan agreement with Voyager.
The legal counsel requested Sam Bankman-Fried’s closest advisors to releases more information and documents that could help Voyager creditors.
The development comes barely a week after FTX’s failed trading arm, Alameda Research, asked a court to claw back $445 million from Voyager Digital, which it said SBF’s empire paid to the crypto lender before collapsing into bankruptcy.
In a court filing, FTX lawyers said the hedge fund paid Voyager $249 million in September and $194 million a month later, which were preceded by a $3.2 million interest payment in August.
Alameda Research seeks to recover those loan payments from the troubled digital asset manager since they were made close to FTX’s bankruptcy filing. Under certain circumstances, federal laws consider such payments eligible to be ‘recoverable’ and thus could be used to repay FTX’s own creditors.
In September 2021, Voyager secured a credit facility close to $380 million from the quant trading firm. Then in June 2022, the US broker entered into an agreement with Alameda Ventures to extend the previous credit facility, which was intended to help it meet customer liquidity needs.
Bankman-Fried-led Alamada offered to extend a credit line of $200 million in cash and USDC alongside a 15,000 BTC revolver. Nevertheless, the US dollar value of the loans have almost halved as the loan was denominated in crypto tokens rather than fiat money.
Previously, Alameda criticized Binance’s $1 billion acquisition deal, saying the proposal “ignores fundamental requirements and protections of the Bankruptcy Code.”
Voyager defended its plan to sell assets to Binance.US and responded to objections raised by the US state and federal regulators. In a separate filing, the bankrupt crypto lender described the claims of Alameda Research as “hypocrisy and chutzpah based on unverified speculation.”
Voyager explains that Binance.US’ bid is structurally similar to the FTX US’ proposal. Binance had emerged before as one of the highest bidders for Voyager Digital’s assets. Following FTX’s collapse, Voyager reopened the bidding process and its board was reportedly in active discussions with alternative bidders.
