Alameda Research is seeking to claw back hundreds of millions of dollars paid to individuals and firms, including former UK chancellor George Osborne’s venture capital vehicle, in connection with a deal struck by Sam Bankman-Fried shortly before his FTX cryptocurrency empire entered bankruptcy last year.
Alameda, which is now being run by restructuring expert John Ray, alleged that Bankman-Fried and other insiders misappropriated FTX money to pay for the acquisition of Embed Financial, a start-up broker-dealer that had been touted as a way for the cryptocurrency group to expand its offerings into traditional financial securities.
In two lawsuits filed in Delaware on Wednesday, the company sought to reclaim millions of dollars from former Embed employees who received “retention” payments from the deal, as well as the company’s former shareholders.