No products in the cart.
- Latest
- Trending
ADVERTISEMENT
Damaged cryptocurrency exchange FTX operated as Sam Bankman-Fried’s “personal estate,” a company lawyer said Tuesday, adding that one of its units spent $300 million on real estate in the Bahamas. added.
The world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange’s plunge has rocked the crypto industry.
In the most high-profile cryptocurrency crash to date, FTX has filed for protection in the US after traders withdrew $6 billion from its platform in three days and rival exchange Binance abandoned bailout trading. .
Lawyers for FTX said during Tuesday’s bankruptcy hearing, in a livestream watched by nearly 1,000 people on YouTube, that an investigation should be conducted into Binance’s sale of FTX in July 2021. Binance said he purchased his FTX shares in 2019 and in 2021.
Reuters previously reported that Bankman-Fried’s FTX, his parents and senior executives at the failed cryptocurrency exchange bought at least 19 properties worth $121 million in the Bahamas over the past two years. rice field.
At the hearing, FTX’s lawyers said the company continued to face cyberattacks even as bankruptcy began, resulting in the loss of “considerable” assets.
More information has emerged about how FTX’s profits were spent.
A deed found by Reuters shows that the property previously purchased by a unit of FTX was to be used as the company’s “key personnel residence”. Couldn’t determine what was in it.
The properties are mostly luxury beachfront homes and seven condominiums in an expensive resort community called Albany.
A condo in Albany costs about $72 million.
Another beach-accessible home document in Old Fort Bay is a gated community that was home to a British colonial fort built in the 1700s to protect against pirates. as a signatory.
According to one of the documents dated June 15, the property is intended for use as a “vacation home”.
Asked by Reuters why the couple decided to buy a vacation home in the Bahamas and how it was paid for (cash, mortgage, or through a third party such as FTX), a spokesperson for the professor said Bankman and Freed are trying to return properties to FTX.
“Even before the bankruptcy proceedings, Mr. Bankman and Mr. Freed have asked for the deeds to be returned to the company and are awaiting further instructions,” the spokesperson said, without elaborating.
FTX and its employees are known to have purchased property in the Bahamas, where they established their headquarters last September, but property records reviewed by Reuters do not indicate the size of their acquisition and the uses of some of them. showing for the first time. real estate.
FTX, which filed for bankruptcy earlier this month after a flood of customer withdrawals, did not respond to a request for comment.Bankman-Fried did not respond to a request for comment.
Bankman-Fried told Reuters he was living in the house with nine other colleagues. For his employees, he said, FTX offered free meals and “his Uber-like service in-house” around the island.
An estimated 1 million creditors face losses totaling billions of dollars due to the collapse of FTX, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges.
Reuters reports that Bankman-Fried secretly used $10 billion in client funds to support its trading operations, and at least $1 billion of those deposits disappeared.
In a U.S. court filing filed with the Delaware District Bankruptcy Court earlier this month, FTX’s new chief executive, John Wray, said FTX Group’s corporate funds would be used to “use homes and other assets for employees and advisors.” He said he understands it was used to “purchase personal items.”
Reuters was unable to identify the source of funds used by FTX and its executives to purchase these properties.
Reuters searched the Bahamian Registrar’s property records for FTX, Bankman-Fried, his parents and some of the company’s key executives.
FTX Property Holdings Ltd, a unit of FTX, has purchased 15 properties worth nearly $100 million in 2021 and 2022.
The company’s most expensive purchase was a $30 million U.S. penthouse in Albany, the resort where Tiger Woods hosts annual golf tournaments.
Property records for the penthouse dated March 17 and were signed by Ryan Salame, President of FTX Properties, indicating it was intended as a “residence for important persons.”
Salameh did not respond to a request for comment.
Other luxury real estate purchases include three condominiums in One Cable Beach, a beachfront home in New Providence.
Records show that the condos ranged in price from $950,000 to $2 million and were purchased by Nishad Singh, the former head of engineering at FTX. Gary Wang, co-founder of FTX. Bankman-Fried for residential use.
Shin and Wang did not respond to requests for comment.
Two of FTX Properties’ holdings have been marked as commercial. His $8.55 million U.S. residential cluster that served as FTX’s headquarters, and his 4.95-acre land on the coastline overlooking the Cyan Sea that was also intended to be developed into offices. Space for crypto exchanges.
The FTX HQ is currently empty with furniture pushed against some windows.
That label has been removed. The land that cost $4.5 million is also empty.
FTX’s downfall sent tremors to the crypto world, pushing Bitcoin to its lowest level in almost two years and sparking fears of contagion among other companies already reeling from the crypto market crash this year. I’m here.
