Bahamas Security Commission told SBF to surrender $300 million Bahamas Security Commission told SBF to surrender $300 million
FTX says former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried had no right to transfer the funds.
2 min read
Updated: Aug. 15, 2023 at 4:10 pm UTC
Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
FTX and its associated debtors said on Dec. 30 that nearly $300 million seized by the Bahamas’ main securities regulator was transferred without approval.
The debtors asserted that the Bahamas Securities Commission (SCB) instructed former FTX CEO Sam-Bankman Fried and his associate Gary Wang to send $296 million of digital assets to a Fireblocks cryptocurrency wallet controlled by the regulator.
The assets allegedly transferred by Bankman-Fried include 195 million FTT, 1,938 ETH, and other assorted cryptocurrencies without significant value.
Though those assets were worth $296 million in November, their value is now just $167 million. FTX noted that although the SCB holds said assets, the regulator may not be viable to sell this large quantity of FTT tokens at current spot prices — or at all.
FTX and its associated debtors say that their accusation is based on available evidence and assert that the SCB “acknowledged that it orchestrated these transfers.” The SCB’s announcement yesterday, however, did not allude to FTX’s claims.
FTX insists that Bankman-Fried, Wang, and the Bahamas Securities Commission had no right to take control of the assets in question. The company says that it will now try to regain the assets and deliver them to creditors through its bankruptcy proceedings.
The $296 million transfer may or may not have been part of the $3.5 billion of assets that The Bahamas Securities Commission (SCB) admitted to holding yesterday. Those assets were transferred to the regulator more than a month ago on Nov. 12 at the direction of the country’s supreme court and supposedly originated from FTX Digital Markets. FTX asked the SCB today to “clear up any confusion” by describing which crypto assets it seized and how it determined the value of those assets.
FTX also asserted that FTX Digital Markets is the only FTX-related business that is regulated by the Bahamas Security Commission. It noted that FTX Digital markets did not originally own the seized crypto and does not operate the FTX.com exchange.
Incidentally, Sam Bankman-Fried denied moving funds from an address tied to Alameda Research today. Those funds were moved this week and were valued at just $1.7 million. As such, those funds seem to be unrelated to the hundreds of millions of dollars that he allegedly helped transfer to the Bahamas Securities Commission in November.
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Mike Dalton
Before transitioning to crypto writing in 2018, Mike studied library and information sciences. Currently, he resides on Canada's West Coast.
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FTX
FTX is a defunct cryptocurrency exchange, currently in bankruptcy proceedings, that was founded by Sam Bankman-Fried and Zixiao “Gary” Wang in May 2019.
Sam Bankman-Fried is the former CEO, and co-founder of defunct crypto exchange FTX and Alameda Research.
