In the instant aftermath of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s arrest in the Bahamas, an intercontinental dispute is creating around his company’s real estate investments.
Supervisors of the bankrupt cryptocurrency trade are locked in a tug of war with the Bahamian government in excess of a large true estate portfolio that the cryptocurrency exchange is searching to liquidate, CNBC experiences. At challenge is extra than $256M in property that FTX acquired and taken care of across the island of New Providence.
The portfolio involves 35 attributes, which includes more than a dozen in and close to Bankman-Fried’s Albany residence — the place he and other FTX leaders reportedly holed up amid the exchange’s collapse final month — and the website of FTX’s planned headquarters, which broke ground in April and has considering that had development halted, for each CNBC.
The combat occurs as Bankman-Fried awaits extradition from the Bahamas to the United States, pursuing his arrest Monday. The arrest was made soon after the U.S. issued felony prices versus Bankman-Fried, for each a release from the office of Prime Minister Philip Davis.
“The Bahamas and the United States have a shared interest in keeping accountable all persons associated with FTX who may have betrayed the public belief and damaged the legislation,” Davis mentioned in a assertion. “When the United States is pursuing legal costs versus SBF separately, The Bahamas will carry on its individual regulatory and criminal investigations into the collapse of FTX, with the continued cooperation of its legislation enforcement and regulatory associates in the United States and in other places.”
FTX has been embroiled in a developing scandal due to the fact past month when a CoinDesk report about its investment in its have crypto token spurred a run on withdrawals that still left it in a liquidity crisis and careened it into individual bankruptcy.
John Ray III, the company restructuring qualified assigned to handle the firm, has working experience taking care of the bankruptcy of Enron and other folks, but named the collapse of the third-biggest cryptocurrency trade in the entire world an “unparalleled” failure of corporate controls.
The Bahamian federal government has sought to avert the sale of FTX’s property, and the new aspects about FTX’s authentic estate portfolio stem from documents filed by Bahamian regulators in Delaware personal bankruptcy court docket Monday.
The liquidators argued in their latest filing that a holding enterprise managing FTX’s real house was unlawfully transferred to the U.S. as section of Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.
But FTX’s new leadership, led by Ray, has pushed back on individuals promises. Lawyers for Ray referred to as the Bahamian liquidators “reckless” in a counter-submitting, claiming that they experienced pushed Bankman-Fried to try out and get his password back for corporate accounts, CoinDesk stories.
Bankman-Fried was because of to testify prior to Congress Tuesday before his arrest. In a transcript of prepared testimony revealed by Forbes Tuesday, the previous CEO sought to attract a distinction between FTX US, which he mentioned was still thoroughly solvent, and FTX Worldwide, which he claimed absorbed a significant part of the hit brought on by the run on FTX’s exchange in early November.
He weighed in from Ray’s jurisdiction more than FTX International’s holdings, while also claiming Ray and the Chapter 11 workforce held knowledge that could aid untangle info appropriate to the Bahamian liquidators.
The Bahamian properties had been below the management of Bankman-Fried and his previous co-CEO Ryan Salame, who directed the acquisition of dozens of properties, which includes luxury villas acquired for up to $30M and improvement sites bought for $25M. Salame has not been billed with a criminal offense.