The Bahamas government officials worked closely with Sam Bankman-Fried before he was barred from FTX systems. FTX’s attorneys claim the Bahamas authorities tasked SBF with creating new digital tokens worth hundreds of millions of dollars and delivering them to the island’s authorities.
Before the founder of the failed cryptocurrency exchange was arrested, FTX’s attorneys claimed in a court filing that the Bahamas attempted to assist him in regaining access to critical computer systems at the defunct FTX exchange.
According to the American attorneys, the Bahamas authorities were in charge of organizing unauthorized access to FTX systems in order to seize custody of digital assets under the supervision of a U.S. court.
The lawyers stated:
“It is a request for live, dynamic access that would be provided immediately to the government of the Bahamas and to Messrs. Samuel Bankman-Fried and Gary Wang, who are located in the Bahamas and working closely with Bahamian officials.”
The lawyers’ claims exacerbate tensions between FTX Restructuring executives in the United States and Bahamas government representatives.
According to U.S. lawyers, liquidators in the Bahamas requested access to FTX data managed by their American counterparts, including trading data, email records, and other materials.
The American lawyers claimed that SBF opened withdrawals for all Bahamian clients as evidence of alleged cooperation between Bahamas authorities and SBF. On November 9, just days before declaring bankruptcy, FTX announced that it had begun to assist Bahamian fund withdrawals.
Bankman-Fried stated that he would be “more than happy” to open withdrawals for all Bahamian clients. As a result of the incident, the exchange lost cryptocurrency worth millions of dollars.
Sam Bankman-Fried wrote, according to court filings:
“It’s your call whether you want us to do this but we are more than happy to and would consider it the very least of our duty to the country, and could open it up immediately if you reply saying you want us to.”
Other reports also imply that SBF had connections with the U.S. government, notwithstanding the current report’s further assertions of strong relationships between FTX and Bahamas government officials. The FTX founder was eventually arrested yesterday in the Bahamas and is set for extradition to the U.S.
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