Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX, his mother and father and senior executives of the failed cryptocurrency change purchased not less than 19 properties value practically $121 million within the Bahamas over the previous two years, official property data present.
Most of FTX’s purchases have been luxurious beachfront houses, together with seven condominiums in an costly resort neighborhood referred to as Albany, costing nearly $72 million. The deeds present these properties, purchased by a unit of FTX, have been for use as “residence for key personnel” of the corporate. Reuters couldn’t decide who lived within the residences.
The paperwork for an additional dwelling with seashore entry in Outdated Fort Bay — a gated neighborhood that was as soon as dwelling to a British colonial fort constructed within the 1700s to guard in opposition to pirates — present Bankman-Fried’s mother and father, Stanford College legislation professors Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, as signatories. The property, one of many paperwork dated June 15 stated, is to be used as a “trip dwelling.”
When requested by Reuters why the couple determined to purchase a trip dwelling within the Bahamas and the way it was paid for — whether or not in money, with a mortgage or by a 3rd get together akin to FTX — a spokesman for the professors stated solely that Bankman and Fried had been making an attempt to return the property to FTX.
“Since earlier than the chapter proceedings, Mr. Bankman and Ms. Fried have been searching for to return the deed to the corporate and are awaiting additional directions,” the spokesperson stated, declining to elaborate.
Whereas it’s recognized that FTX and its workers purchased actual property within the Bahamas, the place it established its headquarters in September final 12 months, the property data seen by Reuters present for the primary time the size of their shopping for spree and the meant use of a number of the actual property.
FTX, which filed for chapter earlier this month after a rush of buyer withdrawals, didn’t reply to a request for remark. Bankman-Fried didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Bankman-Fried has advised Reuters he lived in a home with 9 different colleagues. For his workers, he stated FTX offered free meals and an “in-house Uber-like” service across the island.
The collapse of FTX, one of many world’s largest crypto forex exchanges, has left an estimated 1 million collectors dealing with losses totalling billions of {dollars}. Reuters has reported Bankman-Fried secretly used $10 billion in buyer funds to prop up his buying and selling enterprise, and that not less than $1 billion of these deposits had vanished.
In a U.S. court docket submitting with the District of Delaware chapter court docket earlier this month, John Ray, FTX’s new chief government, stated he understood that company funds of the FTX Group have been used to “buy houses and different private gadgets for workers and advisors.”
Reuters couldn’t decide the supply of funds that FTX and its executives used to purchase these properties.
Property purchases
Reuters searched property data on the Bahamas Registrar Basic’s Division for FTX, Bankman-Fried, his mother and father and a number of the firm’s key executives.
FTX Property Holdings Ltd, an FTX unit, purchased 15 properties value practically $100 million in 2021 and 2022.
Its most costly buy was a $30 million penthouse on the Albany, a resort the place Tiger Woods hosts a golf event yearly. The property data for the penthouse, dated March 17, have been signed by Ryan Salame, the president of FTX Property, and confirmed it was meant as “residence for key personnel.”
Salame didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Different high-end actual property purchases embody three condominiums at One Cable Seaside, a beachfront residence in New Windfall. Information confirmed the condominiums price between $950,000 and $2 million and have been purchased by Nishad Singh, the previous head of engineering at FTX, Gary Wang, an FTX co-founder, and Bankman-Fried for residential use.
Singh and Wang didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Two of FTX Property’s actual property holdings have been marked for business use – an $8.55 million cluster of homes that served as FTX’s headquarters, and a 4.95-acre plot of land on the shoreline overlooking cyan waters that was additionally meant to be developed into workplace area for the crypto change.
The FTX headquarters is now unoccupied, with furnishings pushed in opposition to some home windows. Its signage has been eliminated. The plot of land, which price $4.5 million, additionally lies empty.
A safety guard stated workers didn’t return to the headquarters after leaving earlier this month.