© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Representations of cryptocurrencies are seen in entrance of displayed FTX brand on this illustration taken November 10, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Picture
(Reuters) – Collapsed cryptocurrency change FTX stays the topic of “an energetic and ongoing investigation” by Bahamian authorities, Bahamian Legal professional Basic Ryan Pinder stated on Sunday, as he praised the Bahamas’ regulatory regime and swiftness with which it responded to the disaster.
FTX, which had been among the many world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, is headquartered within the Bahamas. The agency, whose liquidity crunch compelled the corporate to declare chapter on Nov. 11, is the topic of investigations by Bahamian and U.S. authorities. In mid-November, the Royal Bahamas Police stated that authorities investigators within the Bahamas had been whether or not any “prison misconduct occurred.”
“We’re within the early levels of an energetic and ongoing investigation,” Pinder stated on Sunday, in keeping with ready remarks for the speech. “It’s a very advanced investigation.” He stated it concerned each civil and prison authorities.
Pinder stated that the Bahamas Securities Fee, Monetary Intelligence Unit and the police’s Monetary Crimes Unit would “proceed to research the info and circumstances concerning FTX’s insolvency disaster, and any potential violations of Bahamian regulation.”
Pinder additionally defended the Bahamas’ regulatory regime and stated that its Securities Fee had moved shortly “due to the energy of the legislative framework.”
Bahamas securities regulators had revoked FTX Digital’s license and started involuntary liquidation proceedings the day earlier than the U.S. chapter case kicked off.
“Any try to put everything of this debacle on the toes of the Bahamas, as a result of FTX is headquartered right here, can be a gross oversimplification of actuality,” Pinder stated, including that the Bahamas Securities Fee had moved with “exceptional” velocity in response.
Sam Bankman-Fried, 30, based FTX in 2019 and rode cryptocurrency growth to a web price that Forbes pegged a 12 months in the past at $26.5 billion. Bankman-Fried resigned as FTX’s chief govt officer the identical day because the agency’s chapter submitting.
The liquidity crunch got here after Bankman-Fried secretly moved $10 billion of FTX buyer funds to his proprietary buying and selling agency, Alameda Analysis, Reuters reported, citing two folks conversant in the matter.
The U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace in Manhattan, led by veteran securities fraud prosecutor Damian Williams, in mid-November started investigating how FTX dealt with buyer funds, a supply with information of the probe informed Reuters. The Securities and Change Fee and Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee additionally opened probes.
FTX’s demise comes after a string of meltdowns which have taken down different key gamers together with Voyager Digital and Celsius Community and led some international traders to query the viability of the cryptocurrency sector.
