- Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried revealed details of why FTX only opened withdrawals for Bahamian citizens days after filing for bankruptcy on November 10.
- The Bahamas Securities and Exchange Commission issued a warning that any withdrawal of funds could be recovered as part of the company’s liquidation process.
- Bankman-Fried said he was on the trail of an alleged hacker who stole some $450 million from FTX shortly after it filed for bankruptcy on November 11.
Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried revealed details in a recent interview with blogger Tiffany Fong about why FTX only opened withdrawals to Bahamian citizens days after filing for bankruptcy.
He noted that it was essential for the exchange to have a future: “That’s where I am now, and you don’t want to be in a country with a lot of angry people and you don’t want your company to be incorporated in a country with a lot of angry people.”
Bankman-Fried claimed to have notified the Securities and Exchange Commission of the Bahamas a day before that FTX was going to do so and that the entity did not respond “neither with a yes nor with a no” so it continued with the authorization of withdrawals that were they made massive, claiming that it complied with the demands of the regulators
However, the Securities and Exchange Commission of the Bahamas (SCB) dismissed Bankman-Fried’s claim stating that it had not instructed or authorized FTX to give priority withdrawals to Bahamian clients.
In fact, the commission issued a warning that any withdrawal of funds could be recovered as part of the company’s liquidation process.
In the interview, blogger Fong warned Bankman-Fried that the Bahamian actions would be seen as a move to facilitate withdrawals of funds from people who work at FTX to which the former FTX CEO said: “Oh, This was not about insider withdrawals, this was trying to create a regulatory path forward for the exchange.”
Bankman-Fried said he was on the trail of an alleged hacker who stole some $450 million from FTX shortly after it filed for bankruptcy on November 11.
Although he said he had “a pretty clear idea” of who it could be, he did not give details, although he did clarify that he has a list of 8 suspects.
In a more recent interview, the former FTX CEO said he only had $100,000 in his account, after his fortune in the past was estimated at around $26 billion. According to his words, he had basically everything invested in the company.
