NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Attorney General Ryan Pinder said yesterday that this office made no filings on behalf of the government as FTX creditors, noting that the company does owe the government some real property tax.
A recently filed 115-page FTX creditor list listed several government ministries as FTX creditors.
Pinder said: "We didn't make any filings on behalf of the Attorney General's Office in the matter as creditors. I would presume those creditors were listed voluntarily by FTX themselves. The only indebtedness that I am aware of to the government in the FTX matter is some real property tax that may be owed on the properties which we certainly will be compensated for at the appropriate time."
Some 100 Bahamian companies including a local bank, two Bahamian law firms, and several security firms are listed among the myriad of creditors wrapped up in the collapse of crypto exchange giant FTX according to court documents filed in a US Bankruptcy court.
The document outlining the list of creditors was filed last week by lawyers for FTX and revealed that the collapsed crypto exchange owed money to thousands of companies across the globe, from banks to charities, airlines, media outlets, and government agencies. The amount owed to each individual creditor was however not listed.
The Ministries of Finance, Works and Utilities, Environment and Natural Resources, and the Office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Legal Affairs were listed.
Other local FTX creditors include Automated Services Ltd, A+ Pest Control, Automated Services Ltd Pyfrom Road, Bahamas Airport Advertising Ltd, Bahamas Asset Tracking Dowdswell Street, Bahamas Environmental Group Ltd, Bahamas Waste Limited Gladstone Battery & Tyre Specialists, Cable Bahamas, Design Strong Studio, Fidelity Bank (Bahamas), Omega Motors, Transformations Landscape, and Viridian Development Group.
Several security firms were also listed, namely Falcon Security Company, Park Ridge Security, Harding Security, and Long Watch Security Firm and Consultants. The law firms of Clement Maynard and Co and Glinton Sweeting O'Brien also appeared on the list of FTX creditors.
Environmental non-profit Bahamas Reef Environment Educational Foundation (BREEF) was also listed.
Earlier this month, FTX's founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty in a Manhattan federal to charges that he defrauded investors and illegally diverted a massive amount of customer deposits to his Alameda Research crypto hedge fund for his own personal benefit and to help grow his crypto empire.
A tentative trial date of October 2. Bankman-Fried, 30, has been under house arrest at his parents' California home on a $250 million bond.
Bankman-Fried was arrested at his Albany apartment complex on December 12, 2022. Albany Hotel, Albany Resort, and Albany Resort Operator Ltd are all listed as FTX creditors.
Earlier this month, FTX Trading Ltd and its affiliated US debtors announced that they had come to terms for "mutual cooperation" with the Bahamian-appointed joint provisional liquidators in their recovery efforts, ending a weeks-long courtroom standoff over access to vital information regarding the collapsed crypto empire.
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