Civil and Criminal Investigations into FTX Ongoing, Says Bahamas Attorney General

Ryan Pinder, Bahamas Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, gave a National Address today, saying that the civil and criminal investigations into FTX are ongoing, while no further information about the investigations will be shared.

Previously, the Securities Commission of the Bahamas (SCB) transferred all of FTX Digital Markets' assets to a digital wallet under its control. Ryan Pinder said the move taken by SCB was swift, "placing FTX Digital Markets in provisional liquidation was not sufficient to protect the customers and creditors of the company. The Securities Commission secured the assets of FTX Digital Markets to be held on behalf of and for the benefit and restitution of clients and creditors of FTX."

He also claimed that John Ray, new CEO at FTX, "misrepresented" the government's actions. He said, "it is extremely regrettable that in chapter 11 filings for bankruptcy protection made in New York last week, the new chief executive of FTX Trading Limited – not the Bahamas-based FTX Digital Markets, but an affiliate company incorporated in Antigua and Barbuda – misrepresented the timely action taken by the Securities Commission and used inaccurate allegations lodged in the transfer motion they had filed to do so."

"Any attempt to lay the entirety of this debacle at the feet of the Bahamas because FTX is headquartered here would be a gross oversimplification of reality," Ryan Pinder added. Besides, he said that Alameda Research was not regulated in the Bahamas.

It's worth noting that SBF retweeted the video of the National Address on Twitter.