The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

AFTER multiple government agencies were listed as FTX creditors, Attorney General Ryan Pinder said the only thing he’s aware of that could be owed to the government by the collapsed crypto currency exchange is real property tax.

Mr Pinder spoke after a “verified creditor matrix”, that was filed in the Delaware Bankruptcy Court last month, suggested that FTX was indebted to companies across the Bahamian economic spectrum as well as the government.

Potential creditors ranged from small and micro businesses, such as plant shops, design studios and security firms, to BISX-listed companies, such as Bahamas Waste.

A number of government ministries, including the Ministry of Works and Utilities, the Prime Minister’s Office and local government were also included in the creditor matrix.

Asked about the matter yesterday, Mr Pinder said: “We didn’t make any filings on behalf of the Attorney General’s Office in the matter as creditors. I would presume that those creditors were listed voluntarily by FTX themselves.

“The only indebtedness that I am aware of to the government with respect to the FTX matter is just some real property tax that may be owed on the properties which we certainly will be compensated at the appropriate time with that.”

Last week, Tribune Business reached out to multiple Bahamian companies identified as FTX creditors who asserted that the purported sums owed them were minimal to non-existent.

No sums were posted as to what was owed to the Bahamian, or any, creditors with some local firms questioning the list’s accuracy and asserting that they never performed any work for FTX.

FTX, which is headquartered in The Bahamas, along with its affiliates filed for bankruptcy in the US in November after facing a liquidity crisis and coming under scrutiny following reports that it mismanaged customer assets.

Investigations into the firm’s failure led to the arrest of FTX former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried a month later.

The former billionaire, who is on a $250m bond in the United States, is accused of several fraud charges in the US, including wire fraud, money laundering, conspiracy to commit fraud and violating campaign finance laws.

However, he has since denied committing the offences.