Celsius bankruptcy filing shows its biggest creditor has ties to Alameda Research

Celsius’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy claim revealed that the institution had implicit 100,000 creditors and it was moving connected a restructuring woody that would spot astir of them paid off.

Among the creditors, which see assorted high-profile crypto companies and funds, 1 entity stands retired — Pharos USD Fund SP.

Pharos is an outlier successful an different uneventful database of creditors, arsenic a caller report from Bloomberg News uncovered its opaque past and suspiciously adjacent ties to Alameda Research.

Celsius’ largest creditor excessively adjacent to Alameda Research for comfort

What makes Pharos basal retired among much than 100,000 entities is the information that it has a assertion six times arsenic ample arsenic that of the 2nd biggest creditor identified by name. Celsius’s Chapter 11 filing shows that it owes Pharos $81 million, portion it owes $13.3 cardinal to ICB Solutions, the 2nd largest creditor connected the list.

Graphic showing Celsius’s creditors identified by sanction successful the Chapter 11 filing (Source: Bloomberg)

Finding applicable accusation astir Pharos turned retired to beryllium highly hard, adjacent for Bloomberg. The Chapter 11 filing lists a Cayman Islands code for Pharos and an email code with a Lanter Ventures domain.

While a hunt for Pharos does not output immoderate results, searching for Lantern Ventures leads bash a bare-bones website describing it arsenic a proprietary crypto trading steadfast based successful London. An SEC filing from April 2022 lists Pharos arsenic its affiliate, but neither Lantern’s LinkedIn leafage nor its website mentions the company.

The aforesaid SEC filing shows that Lantern has astir $400 cardinal successful assets nether management, much than fractional of which is owned by investors extracurricular the U.S.

Diving deeper into Lantern’s employees revealed that the institution has heavy ties to Alameda Research and Sam Bankman-Fried, some of whom are besides large creditors of Celsius.

Bloomberg discovered that Lantern’s CEO Tara Mac Aulay is simply a co-founder of Alameda Research. Mac Aulay reportedly revealed her engagement with Alameda during a sheet astatine a league successful London successful November 2021. She besides worked astatine the Centre for Effective Altruism, a U.K. foundation wherever Sam Bankman-Fried served arsenic a manager of development.

Mac Aulay’s LinkedIn leafage does not notation her erstwhile relation astatine Alameda, but a spokesperson astatine the institution confirmed to Bloomberg that she was an aboriginal worker there. Alameda noted that it had nary narration with Lantern Ventures.

However, astatine slightest 3 different Lantern employees either worked for the foundation oregon its affiliate Giving What We Can, wherever Sam Bankman-Fried is listed arsenic a member.

According to the Chapter 11 filing, Celsius owes Alameda $12.8 million. The institution turned down a bailout petition from Celsius and is seeking afloat repayment from the lender.

The station Celsius bankruptcy filing shows its biggest creditor has ties to Alameda Research appeared archetypal connected CryptoSlate.