Bahhamian lawyers say FTX executives Sam Bankman-Fried and Ryan Salame spent $256.3 million spent to buy and maintain 35 different properties across New Providence, Bahamas.
Now, Bahamas regulators are trying to claw back the property from FTX’s U.S. bankruptcy protection proceedings, telling a Delaware federal bankruptcy judge that allowing the properties to be administered in U.S. courts would be both administratively ineffective and illegal under Bahamas law.
Two of the largest apartments at that private Albany development came in at an eye-watering $30 million, while another cost $21.3 million. Bankman-Fried and Salame, the former co-CEOs of the bankrupt crypto exchange, also invested tens of millions into their current headquarters building, sinking over $25 million into the Veridian Corporate Center. FTX broke ground on a new headquarters in April 2022, but it’s been on hold since the exchange filed for bankruptcy in November.
Now, Bahamian regulators are fighting to get those assets back. In a Monday night filing, the Bahamian lawyers asked a U.S. judge to dismiss the chapter 11 proceedings for FTX’s property subsidiary. Bahamian attorneys told the court that because all of the property was in the Bahamas, and because “Bahamian law does not allow recognition of a foreign insolvency proceeding for a Bahamian company,” that the U.S. bankruptcy proceedings should be suspended and Bahamas regulators should be allowed to assume full control of the Bahamian real estate process.
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