Former Alameda Research co-CEO Sam Trabucco has agreed to transfer two San Francisco apartments worth $8.7 million and a luxury yacht to FTX debtors as part of a settlement.
Sam Trabucco Surrenders Properties
According to legal filings published on Monday, Sam Trabucco, the former co-CEO of Alameda Research, will pay FTX a portion of the sum to resolve his debts with the ill-fated crypto exchange. This includes two luxury apartments in San Francisco and a 53-foot yacht.
Trabucco will transfer the legal titles to both residences, which are collectively valued at $8.7 million, to FTX’s debtors. Additionally, he will transfer an HCB Suenos yacht that he acquired in March 2022, during the height of the crypto bull run that year.
Furthermore, the former crypto executive will transfer all rights to the $70 million in claims on FTX customer deposits made under his name to FTX’s debtors.
The agreement between Trabucco and the FTX estate is not yet final; a federal judge in Delaware will need to sanction it during a hearing on December 12. Trabucco would be spared from any potential lawsuits from FTX’s debtors if the settlement is approved.
“The debtors maintain that they have meritorious claims and would prevail against Trabucco in an adversary proceeding,” attorneys for the FTX estate said in Monday’s filing. “However, the debtors would need to spend significant time and resources proving their claims and obtaining a favorable judgment against Trabucco.”
The attorneys continued to argue that the settlement agreement may ultimately result in a lower payout than the amount that could be recovered through a successful lawsuit against Alameda’s former leader.
Trabucco, who was previously a member of Sam Bankman-Fried‘s inner circle, is expected to have successfully avoided any significant criminal or civil litigation in the aftermath of FTX’s collapse if the deal is approved next month.
This is despite the fact that his former colleagues have accrued prison sentences and are subject to intense public scrutiny.
Trabucco’s decision to resign from Alameda, the exchange’s sister trading firm, and step down from his leadership role in August 2022—just months before FTX’s collapse—is a critical distinction in his trajectory. The executive stated that he had made the decision to “work on” himself at the time.
“I bought a boat, that’s been cool,” Trabucco said at the time. “I needed to relax, and I’m really, really happy.”
