BANKMAN-FRIED SAID HE DID NOT HAVE REGULATORY APPROVAL FOR BAHAMIAN WITHDRAWALS
NASSAU, Bahamas — As his company was being put into liquidation in The Bahamas and before he filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US, former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried said he decided to prioritize Bahamian withdrawals from his cryptocurrency exchange because “you do not want to be in the country with a lot of angry people in it”, The Nassau Guardian reported on Wednesday, November 30, in an article written by Assistant Editor Travis Cartwright-Carroll.
However, FTX previously tweeted that he did it per Bahamian regulators.
In an interview after the move, which caused a massive uproar, he admitted he had no such permission.
FTX suspended international withdrawals on November 10, the same day all of its assets in The Bahamas were frozen by the Securities Commission of The Bahamas and a provisional liquidator was appointed by the Supreme Court.
Later that day, FTX tweeted that, with the permission of Bahamian regulators, it would facilitate the withdrawal of Bahamian funds.
In a November 16 interview with Tiffany Fong, a YouTube personality, Bankman-Fried said, “I gave them (SCB) a heads up, a one day heads up, that we were going to do it.
“They didn’t say yes or no. They didn’t respond and then we did it.
“The reason I did it was it was critical to the exchange being able to have a future because that’s where I am right now and you do not want to be in the country with a lot of angry people in it.
“You do not want your company to be incorporated in a country with a lot of angry people in it.
“So, it was realistically speaking, sh***y; but the pathway forward for FTX involved Bahamians not being pissed with it.”
On November 10, FTX tweeted, “Per our Bahamian HQ’s regulation and regulators, we have begun to facilitate withdrawals of Bahamian funds. As such, you may have seen some withdrawals processed by FTX recently, as we complied with regulators.
“The amounts withdrawn comprise a small fraction of the assets we currently hold on hand and we are actively working on additional routes to enable withdrawals for the rest of our database. We are also actively investigating what we can and should do across the world.”
The SCB fired back saying it never gave FTX any authorization for withdrawals.
See complete article in The Nassau Guardian at https://thenassauguardian.com/ex-ftx-ceo-comes-clean/
