FTX and its Employees Went on Real Estate Buying Spree Across Bahamas: Report

FTX, its former chief Sam Bankman-Fried’s parents, as well as senior executives of the fallen crypto exchange, purchased at least 19 properties worth almost $121 million in the Bahamas, according to new reports.

Official property records verified by Reuters reveal that FTX bought luxury beachfront homes, including seven condominiums in a penthouse in a luxury resort called Albany, over the past two years. The total cost was almost $72 million.

The properties’ deeds show that the unit was to be used as “residences for key personnel” of the crypto exchange.

The Albany property was the most expensive deal and was worth $30 million, the documents of which were signed by the president of FTX Property, Ryan Salame.

FTX’s former head of engineering, Nishad Singh, its co-founder Gary Wang, along with Bankman-Fried, bought three apartments at One Cable Beach and a beachfront residence in New Providence.

The documents of another home, built in the 1700s with beach access in Old Fort Bay, show Bankman-Fried’s parents, Stanford University law professors – Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried – as signatories, and the property was to be used as a “vacation home.”

While the mode of payment of these purchases is still not known, a spokesman for the professors asserted only that the duo had been trying to return the property to FTX before the bankruptcy proceedings.

The new development surfaces just days after FTX’s new chief executive, John Ray, revealed in a court filing that corporate funds were used to “purchase homes and other personal items for employees and advisors.”

Meanwhile, FTX Property had shelled out over $8 million on a group of houses to be used as FTX’s office headquarters in addition to $4.5 million on a nearly 5-acre plot of land to be developed into offices.

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