FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried
(Picture: AFP via Getty Images)FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and his parents Joseph and Barbara amassed a property empire in the Bahamas worth over £100 million, new documents have revealed as creditors seek to recover hundreds of millions of dollars from his collapsed crypto company.
Together, the family, the company and its executives bought nineteen properties over two years, including seven apartments in a luxury resort worth a combined $72 million, a $30 million penthouse and a “vacation home” acquired by Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried built on the site of a former British colonial fort, according to property records obtained by the Reuters news agency.
Bankman-Fried made a string of extravagant spending commitments while he ran FTX, including signing a $135 million deal to sponsor a basketball stadium and a donation of almost $40 million to the Democratic Party in the US.
Court filings have since revealed the failed crypto exchange, which was once valued at $32 billion, now owes creditors over $3 billion.
Its new CEO, Jon Ray III, who oversaw the administration of energy company Enron, wrote in a Delaware court filing: “Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here.
“From compromised systems integrity and faulty regulatory oversight abroad, to the concentration of control in the hands of a very small group of inexperienced, unsophisticated and potentially compromised individuals, this situation is unprecedented.”
An FTX spokesperson said: "Since before the bankruptcy proceedings, Mr. Bankman and Ms. Fried have been seeking to return the deed to the company and are awaiting further instructions."
Last week, Bankman-Fried told a Vox reporter over Twitter: “I didn’t want to do sketchy stuff, there are huge negative effects from it…and I didn’t mean to.”
Several celebrities who promoted FTX, including American football player Tom Brady, are understood to be under investigation by regulators in Texas.
