After an apparent listing for Sam Bankman-Fried's luxury penthouse in the Bahamas went viral earlier this week, Fortune has learned that the listing was a fake, with the real estate firm describing it as a “web malfunction.” The page has since been taken down, with the URL now showing “page not found.”
As details about FTX’s crumbling empire are released, including the first bankruptcy declaration on Thursday, the listing is a warning sign for the spread of misinformation in the high-profile case, as well as a curious mystery in the tight-knit world of Bahamian real estate.
“It’s unfortunate because the integrity of the industry is at stake,” said Nikki Boeuf, the president of the Bahamas Real Estate Association.
The height of luxury
Sam Bankman-Fried's penthouse is located in the Orchid building of the Albany, a luxury gated resort in the southwest of New Providence, the most populous island of the Bahamas. The Albany is one of the top properties in the country, backed by an investor group with names such as Tiger Woods, and complete with its own private marina, golf course, grocery store, and high-class restaurants.
Amid the palatial spread, Bankman-Fried's penthouse still carved out an impressive display of wealth. In a 2021 Facebook listing by Graham Real Estate, it was listed for just shy of $40 million, a 7,500-square-foot property with five bedrooms, seven-and-a-half baths, and an outdoor rooftop pool and lounge area.
Graham Real Estate confirmed to Fortune it had sold the property, but declined to name the buyer. The property likely belonged to FTX rather than Sam Bankman-Fried himself, with The Block reporting in November that a subsidiary called FTX Property Holdings had spent almost $75 million on property in the Bahamas in 2022, including over $67 million in “entities surrounding Albany Bahamas.”
On Nov. 13, the popular pseudonymous Twitter account Autism Capital tweeted that the property had once again gone up for sale, listed by a Bahamian firm called Seaside Real Estate. The post included many of the same photos as the 2021 listing, as well as the exact same price—$39,500,000.
Sam's penthouse "The Orchid" in the Albany exclusive community is now listed on the market for sale -- $39,500,000https://t.co/6TsURzyEZg pic.twitter.com/fZ2pY4ujCh
— Autism Capital 🧩 (@AutismCapital) November 13, 2022
Outlets around the world picked up the story, including The Guardian and Curbed, which on Nov. 15 started a “running list of FTX real-estate holdings that are hitting the market.” To date, the penthouse is the only one included.
Despite the media attention, there were warning signs the listing was fake. For one, the Securities Commission of the Bahamas froze assets belonging to FTX on Nov. 10, before the listing went up, which sources familiar with the matter say would include real estate.
The Tribune, a Bahamian newspaper, also reported surprise that the property was being listed by a firm not based in Nassau, but instead the district of Exuma.
‘We have no idea’
On Thursday, Fortune reached Alvan Rolle, a member of the Seaside management team, on the phone. He said that the firm never had a listing, and the page was a result of a "web malfunction" that's “presently being cleaned up.”
“We don’t have a listing for them and we never did,” he told Fortune. “We didn’t even know about the listing until it was brought to our attention.”
He added that he had never been in contact with the FTX team, and that he had told his webmaster and “the authorities” about the malfunction, although he declined to name which ones.
“We don’t even know the people who own the property,” he said.
Despite his claims that Seaside was not aware of the property, the page included an MLS or “multiple listing service” number, which is the cooperative data exchange program organized by the Bahamas Real Estate Association.
The listing has since been taken down, although the Wayback Machine shows that it was still up as of 1:50 p.m. ET on Wednesday.
Nikki Boeuf, president of the Bahamas Real Estate Association, said that the majority of sales for the Albany are still first-time property listings coming online being sold by the developer. A representative from BREA said that most resales at Albany are handled by an in-house broker, Sara Callender, and her team. Callendar declined to speak to Fortune.
Boeuf did not have any insight into the fake listing, although she did say that the "savviness of the marketing skills varies tremendously” amid real estate companies in the Bahamas.
She told Fortune that she would investigate the matter and contact Seaside Real Estate, with possible disciplinary actions including a loss of licensure.
“If we find he is not in compliance, we would not renew, because we have a very strong ethics policy that all real estate brokerages bound by,” she said.
