Bahamian Attorney General Ryan Pinder said on Sunday that the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX is still the focus of “an active and ongoing investigation” by Bahamian authorities. Pinder also praised the Bahamas’ regulatory framework and the speed with which it handled the situation.
The headquarters of FTX, one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, are located in the Bahamas. The corporation, whose financial crisis caused it to declare bankruptcy on November 11, is under investigation by Bahamian and US authorities. According to the Royal Bahamas Police, authorities in the Bahamas were looking into whether any “criminal misconduct occurred,” as of mid-November.
“We are in the early stages of an active and ongoing investigation,” Pinder said on Sunday, according to prepared remarks for the speech. “It is a very complex investigation.” He said it involved both civil and criminal authorities.
The Financial Intelligence Unit, the Financial Crimes Unit of the police, and the Bahamas Securities Commission, according to Pinder, would “continue to investigate the facts and circumstances regarding FTX’s insolvency crisis, and any potential violations of Bahamian law.”
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Additionally, Pinder defended the regulatory framework of the Bahamas and said that the Securities Commission had responded swiftly “because of the strength of the legislative framework.”
The day before the start of the U.S. bankruptcy case, the Bahamas’ securities regulators revoked FTX Digital’s license and started the involuntary liquidation process.
“Any attempt to lay the entirety of this debacle at the feet of the Bahamas, because FTX is headquartered here, would be a gross oversimplification of reality,” Pinder said, adding that the Bahamas Securities Commission had moved with “remarkable” speed in response.
Sam Bankman-Fried, 30, created FTX in 2019 and amassed a net worth of $26.5 billion, according to a Forbes report from one year ago. The day before FTX filed for bankruptcy, Bankman-Fried announced his resignation as the company’s CEO.
According to Reuters, which cited two persons with knowledge of the situation, Bankman-Fried surreptitiously transferred $10 billion of FTX client cash to his proprietary trading company, Alameda Research, which led to the liquidity crunch.
