Lawyers in the Caribbean archipelagic nation of the Bahamas say FTX founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and co-CEO Ryan Salame spent $256.3 million buying different properties in the country. Now, regulators want all of these properties returned to the state.
The Bahamian officials went to a federal court in Delaware asking the court to dismiss FTX's bankruptcy proceedings for its property subsidiary, FTX Property Holdings Limited.
Bahamian attorneys told the court that because all of FTX Property Holdings' real estate was in the Bahamas and because "Bahamian law does not allow recognition of a foreign insolvency proceeding for a Bahamian company," the bankruptcy proceedings for the subsidiary should be suspended.
The Bahamian regulators added that FTX Property Holdings was only used to hold Bahamas real estate, and "has no real assets here, no creditors here, and it never has done business here." Furthermore, they pointed out that Bahamian regulators were "able to trace the funds used for each purchase from an FTX Digital bank account" for all but three of the properties, where "we could not trace the flow of funds."
If the bankruptcy proceedings for FTX Property Holdings do get suspended, Bahamian regulators will immediately assume full control of the process of acquiring FTX's real estate properties in the country. (Related: Sam Bankman-Fried's parents purchased $121 million in "vacation home" properties in Bahamas using illicit funds from FTX crypto scam.)
FTX owns 35 properties in the Bahamian capital
The court documents filed by the Bahamian officials noted that FTX owns 35 different properties in the country, including 15 multimillion-dollar condominium units in the same building. All of these properties were located in the Bahamian capital city of Nassau on the island of New Providence.
The aforementioned condominium building is known as the Albany Resort. Two of the largest apartments in the building were purchased for $21.3 million and $30 million, respectively. Bankman-Fried himself used the latter condo unit as his own residence before his arrest.
The Albany Resort is a luxury development located in an oceanside community. It has its own marina and a golf course that has hosted the PGA Tour.
At One Cable Beach, another luxury community where FTX owns four properties, Bahamian regulators noted that those four properties are located on the same floor, and apartment plans show that the four properties combined are nearly 3,00 square feet and have a wraparound balcony.
Bankman-Fried and Salame also invested over $25 million into land for FTX's current headquarters building at the Veridian Corporate Center. The company broke ground on the new headquarters back in April, but construction of the building has been on hold since the exchange filed for bankruptcy last month.
New FTX CEO John J. Ray and his American attorneys are likely to push back against the claims of the Bahamian officials. Ray has publicly committed to maximizing the company's recovery to be able to pay back all of FTX's current and former clients both in the United States and abroad through restructuring and asset sales.
Ray has called the Bahamian attempts to secure access to some FTX assets as "reckless," but admitted in court that FTX was one of the "biggest governance failures" he had seen in his 40-year career of restructuring insolvent companies. Among the failures Ray cited was the company's lack of proper documentation regarding the status of the Bahamas properties and whether they were owned by FTX Property Holdings, by Bankman-Fried himself or by his staff.
Learn more about FTX and the criminal allegations against its founder Sam Bankman-Fried at CryptoCult.news.
Watch this video of Martin Brodel commenting on Sam Bankman-Fried's recent arrest in the Bahamas.
This video is from the Martin Brodel channel on Brighteon.com.
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FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried puts up Bahamas penthouse for sale at $40M.
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