On Monday, court documents from lawyers involved with the FTX Trading LTD Chapter 11 bankruptcy case allege that the government of The Bahamas asked the disgraced FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) to mint new crypto tokens. The lawyers detailed that it was a “request for live, dynamic access that would be provided immediately to the government of the Bahamas and to Messrs.”
Government of Bahamas Accused of Getting Special Treatment From Disgraced FTX Co-Founder Sam Bankman-Fried
Following Sam Bankman-Fried’s (SBF) arrest in The Bahamas, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged SBF with fraud over the FTX collapse. Furthermore, reports show that the Southern District of New York (SDNY) prosecutor’s office and SDNY attorney Damian Williams have charged SBF with crimes as well.
“The Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office on Tuesday unsealed an eight-count indictment charging disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried with a multi-year scheme to siphon money out of the now-collapsed crypto exchange,” law360.com court reporter Rachel Scharf disclosed on Tuesday. Furthermore, court documents from the FTX Chapter 11 bankruptcy case indicate that the joint provisional liquidators of FTX Digital Markets filed a motion to dismiss the Chapter 11 case of FTX Property Holdings LTD.
Lawyers have also accused the government of The Bahamas of asking SBF to mint new digital tokens worth millions of U.S. dollars. The tokens were allegedly given to Bahamian officials, FTX’s legal team said. FTX’s new CEO John J. Ray III and his team noticed that new tokens were being issued and suspected that SBF and FTX co-founder Gary Wang were the executives who worked on orders stemming from Bahamian officials. The news follows the odd relationship FTX officials like exchange boss Ryan Salame had with vertical farming firms.
Ryan Salame and Bahamian prime minister (PM) Philip Davis visited Ohio to tour a business called 80 Acres Farms in Jan. 2022. Furthermore, during his interview with Mario Nawfal’s Twitter Spaces crew, FTX co-founder SBF admitted that withdrawals to Bahamian residents took place before FTX fully collapsed, and possibly on two occasions. SBF also described giving Bahamian withdrawals the green light in his two-part interview with Tiffany Fong (here and here). FTX’s American attorney detailed this week that SBF negotiated with the Bahamian government and $100 million a day in withdrawals was allegedly permitted by SBF.
Discussing the minting of new crypto tokens for the Bahamian government, the lawyers claim SBF and Gary Wang worked with the officials very closely before the bankruptcy filing on Nov. 11, 2022. “It is a request for live, dynamic access that would be provided immediately to the government of the Bahamas and to Messrs. Samuel Bankman-Fried and Gary Wang, who are located in the Bahamas and working closely with Bahamian officials,” the FTX lawyers said in the court filing.
After the allegations, the Securities Commission of The Bahamas issued a statement and wholeheartedly denied FTX CEO John Ray’s allegations published in the court filings. The Bahamas regulator said the accusations are meant “to create a false impression of communications between Mr. Bankman-Fried and the Commission.”
What do you think about the claims against the Bahamian officials? Do you think SBF gave Bahamian officials special treatment? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.