The Tribune

AFTER much anticipation, the new book about Sam Bankman-Fried, the figurehead behind FTX who led it to its spectacular implosion, has been released – just in time for his trial to begin.

But if you are looking for smoking guns about Bahamian involvement in the fall of FTX, they are few and far between.

The biggest allegation surrounds a claim in the book that Mr Bankman-Fried had offered to pay off the $9bn debt of The Bahamas.

The author of the book, Michael Lewis, tells how “Sam explained that he was trying to decide whether simply to pay off the $9 billion Bahamas national debt himself, so the country could fix roads and build schools and so on. He’d recently met the new prime minister to discuss this idea and some others”.

Mr Lewis adds: “I learnt later from one of the prime minister’s aides that after the Bahamian general election in September 2021, Sam was the first person the prime minister had wanted to meet.”

Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis denies that such a proposition was entertained, yesterday saying “Who said I spoke to him? Did he say that I spoke to him? Did he say that, or was that speculation, because who made the claim?”

He added: “I had no discussion with FTX of Sam Bankman about paying off the national debt of The Bahamas.”

Mr Davis suggested the source of the claim should be identified – but it seems fairly clear that the source is Mr Bankman-Fried speaking to the book’s author.

But is Mr Bankman-Fried a reliable source? After all, this is a man who faces multiple charges of fraud and money-laundering.

The book features other remarkable claims that appear to come from Mr Bankman-Fried, including him talking about trying to get Donald Trump not to run for president with a price tag of $5bn attached to the offer. Did that offer get made? Well, Mr Trump is still running.

So Mr Bankman-Fried may not be a reliable source in himself – his talk of doing this or doing that did not materialise in a number of ways. The book spends some time highlighting those around Mr Bankman-Fried who noted the various commitments he failed to follow through on – meetings to attend, places to visit and so on. One of his colleagues who came to manage his schedule said how he would say he was 60 percent likely to do something before she went on to lament how could she book 60 percent of a flight, or 60 percent of a hotel room, and so on.

Something he said may not have been something he followed through on.

And if he had – well, frankly it would be in the nation’s interest to hear such a proposal if it were made. That does not mean accepting it – that would very much depend on what conditions were attached. It might not even have been legal to accept it, given the murky web of money transfers that seems to have troubled Mr Bankman-Fried at times. The book points out various times over his history where businesses he was involved with, including FTX, just did not know where the money was, and could not account for some of its losses.

Given some of the frankly outrageous allegations against The Bahamas in the wake of FTX’s demise, including opinion pieces that dived back into ancient history of pirate ships which have nothing to do with modern crypto currency fund transfers, there is remarkably little in the book that speaks of any blame that should fall on Bahamian shoulders.

Rather, this tells the story of a man who seems to have been out of depth as a manager, unwilling to listen to those around him, lacking in detail on important issues in his business, and unable to explain where the money was when it came to the crunch. In numerous crisis periods previously, his mantra was to just keep on trading, to trade his way out of problems, until he could not do that any more.

This was a financial disaster that happened in The Bahamas, but which was not made in The Bahamas. The blame lies squarely on the shoulders of those who ran such a company without proper financial management.

There will be much more to come, of course, as the trial proceeds – and where there are failings of The Bahamas, they should be highlighted and rectified. That will be the bigger test we must yet face.