- Sam Trabucco was CEO of Alameda Research. He left the cryptocurrency fund a few months before it collapsed.
- Before leaving Alameda, he went on a $10 million estate spree and bought a 52-foot yacht.
- US prosecutors have not alleged that Trabucco committed any wrongdoing.
Sam Trabucco fell down As CEO of trading firm Alameda Research in August, Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire filed for bankruptcy and lost $8 billion in client money.
When he left in late August, he he tweeted“But if I’ve learned anything at Alameda, it’s how to make the right decisions — and that’s the right one for me.”
The whereabouts of Trabucco, who has not been charged with any wrongdoing, are unclear. Here’s what we know about one of Alameda Research’s top executives.
Bankman-Fried was Alameda’s sole CEO from its inception until October 2021, when Ellison and Trabucco took over. Trabucco officially served as Alameda’s CEO for less than a year, from October 2021 to August 2022.
Trabucco, 30, has not been charged with any wrongdoing. He resigned from the company in August, replacing Caroline Ellison as CEO of Alameda.
Trabucco significantly reduced his role at Alameda in the months leading up to his departure. He “couldn’t personally continue to justify the investment of time to be a central part of Alameda” tweeted, adding that he will remain a consultant at the company but will not have a “strong day-to-day presence.”
Trabucco wanted to “prioritize other things.”
“What else? I’m not really sure. I’ve been very happy lately, spending a lot of time traveling, visiting friends and family, working on ‘me’ and stuff,” she said. “I also bought a boat, it was great. I got to relax and I’m really happy.”
Before leaving Alameda, Trabucco reportedly went on a $10 million property spree, buying two luxury apartments in San Francisco, according to Protos. He also bought a 52-foot yacht, which he named “Wet My Deck.” The Financial Times reports that Trabucco even paid a freelancer on Fiverr to design the boat’s logo.
A month after leaving FTX, Trabucco tweeted: “Why are journalists so excited to make my resignation out of anything other than a desire to speed across beautiful water?”
-Sam Trabucco (@AlamedaTrabucco) September 28, 2022
Bankman-Fried and Trabucco have known each other for more than a decade. They met in 2010 at a five-week math camp at Mount Holyoke College, where Trabucco said Bankman-Fried rarely slept while there, Insider reported.
The two later reconnected in college at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where Trabucco studied mathematics and computer science. Before joining Alameda as a trader in 2019, he served as a quant trader on Susquehanna’s bond exchange-traded fund desk, according to LinkedIn.
In a press release announcing the move of Trabucco and Ellison to become co-CEOs, the company said the two will “oversee all operations at Alameda, while collaborating to execute the organization’s strategy” and “focus on managing the trading desk.”
The former executive was an aggressive crypto trader who used risky bets in his Alameda business. Bloomberg reports that Trabucco has mentioned in a series of public comments that he also uses poker and blackjack strategies in his trading.
“Big (Better to Bet),” he tweeted in January 2021, explaining how his gambling experience shaped his trading methods. “Getting it good is a poker term that refers to the idea that you want to bet more when your odds are at their best.”
When cryptocurrency exchange OKX stopped user withdrawals on its platform in January 2021, Alameda started taking positions investors who want to reduce risk.
“Not only are we not sellers, we are HUGE buyers – albeit risky – because, in fact, we can take risks and this trade is HUGE as we know – it was very important and that’s one thing for us. We aim to do it all the time,” he said he tweeted.
As for his involvement in the downfall of the FTX, US prosecutors have not said Trabucco was involved in any wrongdoing, although he worked in Alameda’s C-suite with several executives now facing multiple charges.
“[Sam] In October 2021, Trabucco told CoinDesk that he was not really involved in the day-to-day operations at Alameda. [at Alameda] long enough.”
“Bankman-Fried remained the final decision-maker at Alameda even after Ellison and Trabucco became co-CEOs,” the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said in its complaint against the FTX, despite allegations made to the news agency more than a year ago. CEO.
“Bankman-Fried directed investment and operational decisions, communicated frequently with Alameda employees, and had full access to Alameda’s records and databases,” the court filing states.
Trabucco did not respond to Insider’s request for comment.