By Deandrea Hamilton
Editor
#TheBahamas, December 14, 2022 – During media interviews, Sam Bankman-Fried claims he needed the real estate purchased in Nassau, Bahamas as enticement for new employees and housing for staff, but now that spending is being labelled as criminal. Some $256 Million doled out on luxury apartments was exorbitant and allegedly reflective of the casual management style of the now imprisoned ex-CEO of FTX; in the US Congress on Tuesday, the money was said to be stolen from investors.
Bankman-Fried is no longer a free man, he is being held on remand at The Bahamas Department of Corrections until February 8, 2023 if the court’s decision stands. The 30-year old, banished as he vocalized his resistance to extradition to his home country, the United States, where he is on the hook for billions of dollars and faces at least eight charges of fraud.
On the day of his arraignment, Tuesday December 13, which attracted a crush of local and global media at the Magistrate’s Courthouse, it came to light that Sam Bankman-Fried was snapping up real estate to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.
It further flabbergasted those following the case of the young crypto wiz, once head of the world’s third largest Crypto Currency exchange who finds himself embroiled in a shocking saga. His attorneys rebutted arguments of SBF being a flight risk, if released on bail and claimed Bankman-Fried is suffering sleepless nights and is taking medication for his nerves. The latter, among the reasons given, for Bankman-Fried’s need to be release on bail after appearing in court before Magistrate Joyann Ferguson-Pratt.
The bail was denied. SBF will spend 8 weeks in prison in Fox Hill, Nassau.
The filing by Bahamian lawyers informed that FTX executives Sam Bankman-Fried and Ryan Salame, scandalously spent $256.3 million to buy and maintain 35 different properties at the Albany and Goldwyn, both developments in an affluent coastal area in Nassau.
Some of the real estate was also vacant land said to be in western New Providence.
Revealed was spending in excess of $51 million on two ultra-stunning apartments at Albany, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.
Bankman-Fried in an interview aired on Sunday December 11, told Jerome Sawyer, host of On the Record, the more expensive of the units was home to five families. The embattled former CEO neglected to mention however, just how many apartments he had purchased and that the $30 million price tag on the most expensive on the list, about which he was asked, was but one of many residences obtained by FTX.
Now, a battle has ensued over who has first dibs at so called, stolen fortune which was allegedly used in unchecked, reckless spending. Bahamas regulators are hoping to claw back the expensive real estate and funds earned as it continues actions through court-appointed provisional liquidators.
“These actions included securing the transfer of potentially commingled digital assets of FTX Digital Markets Ltd. and affiliates to a secure location under the authority of an Order issued by the Supreme Court of The Bahamas. The Commission holds those assets as trustee only (under Bahamian Law), and they will be ultimately distributed, to creditors and clients of FTX, wherever they may be located, in accordance with the court’s direction,” the Securities Commission of The Bahamas in a statement on December 13 added, “The Commission has previously addressed improper distributions to Bahamian citizens in its statement dated 12 November 2022. The Commission reaffirms its prior statement and notes that to the extent improper distributions were made to Bahamian citizens, such distributions will be subject to the appropriate claw back actions under the law.”
SBF was arrested on Monday evening by the Royal Bahamas Police on advice of the United States. On Tuesday, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission charged Bankman-Fried in a parallel action with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC).
Speculations are that this is just the first set of charges to come for the thirty-year-old.
The SEC noted that investigations are ongoing. The Commission also said it is investigating “other securities law violations” and other entities and individuals.