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US Bankruptcy Attorney For FTX Spars With Bahamas

By  |  December 18, 2022

Choice words, not assets, are being exchanged between FTX’s US bankruptcy attorney and Bahamian officials.

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    While Sam Bankman-Fried, disgraced founder of the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, awaits his extradition to the U.S. in a Bahamian jail cell, his ex-company’s legal team isn’t mincing words as they clash with their respective peers on the island nation over unwinding the remains of his once high-flying crypto empire.

    “We do not trust the Bahamian government,” lawyer James Bromley, who is representing FTX, said during a virtual hearing on Wednesday (Dec. 14).

    He was addressing a motion filed by liquidators of FTX’s Bahamian businesses that requested access to the Slack, Google and Amazon Web Services accounts and data of FTX’s U.S. business.

    Related: FTX Searching For $9.4 Billion Investment To Avoid Bankruptcy

    Bromley argued before the judge overseeing the case that Bahamian regulators had previously worked with SBF, prior to his arrest, to undermine the U.S. bankruptcy case by withdrawing $100 million from the platform as it collapsed.

    “This is dangerous information,” Bromley said, referring to the internal files. FTX’s more than 100 interrelated affiliates spread across jurisdictions are exacerbating tensions between the various teams of lawyers, liquidators and officials tasked with unwinding the remains of a once-heralded crypto empire.

    The conflict was exacerbated on Monday (Dec. 12) when Bahamas court officials demanded the Delaware judge overseeing the company’s U.S. bankruptcy allow Bahamian regulators to assume control of FTX’s $256 million real estate portfolio, which reportedly consists of up to 35 properties spread across the island nation.