The process, which started with the collapse of Terra (LUNA) in May, continued with companies such as Celsius and Three Arrows Capital. Currently, new developments for Celsius are emerging. One company stands out among the 100,000+ creditors of crypto lender Celsius Network, which filed for bankruptcy last Wednesday: Pharos USD Fund SP. Here are the details…
Eyes on Celsius after LUNA crash
Celsius’s section 11 filing shows it owes Pharos $81 million, according to Bloomberg, who shared an article on Celsius’ collapse. That’s twice the amount of credit as the second largest creditor. The document lists an email for Pharos with a Cayman Islands address. A Google search for Pharos USD Fund SP returns no results, according to Bloomberg editor Emily Nicolle. A job posting on another Lantern Ventures website describes it as a London-based proprietary trading firm focused on cryptocurrencies.
The website—and Lantern’s LinkedIn page—makes no mention of Pharos. But an SEC filing in April lists Pharos as a subsidiary of Lantern. According to the SEC document, the company has approximately $400 million under management. More than half of these belong to investors outside the US. Lantern also has several employees listed on LinkedIn whose career histories overlap with those of a prominent crypto billionaire whose firm is also a major creditor of Celsius: Sam Bankman-Fried.
The firm’s Chairman of the Board, Tara Mac Aulay, is the co-founder of Bankman-Fried’s crypto trading firm, Alameda Research. She said this in a panel she gave at a conference held in London in November, as we have also reported as Kriptokoin.com. She also worked at an Oxford, England-based organization, a charity where Bankman-Fried was formerly director of development, according to her LinkedIn profile.
BlockFi deal
Bankman-Fried has emerged as a central player in the recent crypto market turmoil. He emerged as a major debtor and creditor in the bankruptcy of cryptocurrency loan company Voyager Digital this month. Crypto exchange FTX US is injecting capital into BlockFi Inc. There is also the possibility that FTX will acquire this company. Celsius owes Alameda $12.8 million, according to the bankruptcy filing. Bankman-Fried rejected a bailout request from Celsius, Bloomberg previously reported. Mac Aulay’s LinkedIn page makes no mention of his former role at Alameda. A spokesperson in Alameda confirmed that Aulay had worked there before. But he added that the platform no longer “has any affiliation with Lantern Ventures.”
Lantern Ventures shareholders
At least three Lantern employees have worked for the charity or affiliate Giving What We Can, for which Bankman-Fried is listed as a member, according to employee biographies on LinkedIn. Victor Xu, another Lantern employee, was chief trader at Alameda for nine months in 2018, according to his LinkedIn profile. According to one site, Mac Aulay is listed as Lantern’s largest shareholder as of May 2021.
Other investors include Luke Ding, ex-partner of Brevan Howard Asset Management, Pamir Gelenbe of Libertus Capital and Estonia-based Metaplanet Holdings. A filing with the UK’s House of Companies shows Lantern Ventures has net assets of $3.7 million as of May 2021. A year ago, the company listed $60,050 in net liabilities.
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