Attorney General Ryan Pinder said yesterday that as far as he is aware, the only money FTX owes to The Bahamas is “some real property tax” and said the government did not apply to be listed as creditors in the FTX Chapter 11 bankruptcy case.
“I would presume that those creditors were listed voluntarily by FTX themselves,” he said when asked why several government ministries are listed as creditors.
“The only indebtedness that I am aware of to the government with respect to the FTX matter is just some real property tax that may be owed on the properties, which we will certainly be compensated.”
Pinder noted that there is nothing untoward about the matter.
“That is purely a debtor-creditor situation,” he said.
“There is no negative light, there is no positive light. It is a function of a liquidation proceeding and it is nothing more and nothing less.”
In a January 25 filing in Delaware, FTX Trading Ltd. listed more than 100 Bahamian companies as creditors.
Among them were the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Works and Utilities, the Office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Legal Affairs, the Office of the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, the Central Bank of The Bahamas and the Securities Commission of The Bahamas.
The Department of Local Government was also listed as a creditor.
The company has nearly one million creditors and owes its top 50 creditors $3 billion.
FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange, was headquartered in The Bahamas before its collapse last November.
Its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, was later arrested in The Bahamas, extradited to the United States and charged with defrauding his customers of billions of dollars. He has denied the charges.
FTX Digital Markets, the company based in The Bahamas, is in liquidation.
