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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2024
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Buyers for FTX’s $256m real ‘Absolutely untrue’ DARE influenced estate target 30% discounts by FTX, Deltec By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
DEAL-HUNTERS seeking discounts of up to 30 percent are circling FTX’s $256m Bahamian real estate holdings as local liquidators move to secure realtors who will market 34 properties for sale. Ryan Knowles, founder and chief executive of Maison Bahamas Real Estate, told Tribune Business he had spoken to “at least a dozen, if not more, clients” in the past two weeks who were all asking when the high-end residences and commercial properties acquired by the collapsed crypto exchange will be “ready to go”. Speaking after the liquidators for FTX Digital Markets, the local subsidiary, on Friday formally launched the bidding process to find realtors willing to handle the disposal of these properties,
t $JSDMJOH QVSDIBTFST SFQPSUFE ASFBEZ UP HP t -JRVJEBUPST XBOU SFBMUPST GPS QSPQFSUJFT t .BYJNVN WBMVF HPBM WFSTVT ATQFFE FMFNFOU Mr Knowles and others said the trio could ultimately be forced to make hard decisions depending on how the process plays out. Brian Simms KC, the Lennox Paton senior partner, and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) accounting duo, Kevin Cambridge and Peter Greaves, will be mandated by the Supreme Court and their obligation to FTX creditors to maximise asset recoveries and obtain the
best sales price for the Bahamian properties. However, this objective may be challenged if deals prove hard to secure, and the properties remain on the market for long periods of time. In such a scenario, “the speed element comes into play” and the Bahamian liquidation trio may be forced to somewhat compromise their maximum price goal and offer discounts to obtain a sale
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By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
BRIAN SIMMS KC
MARIO CAREY
RYAN KNOWLES
Deltec’s ‘secret’ $2bn credit line for FTX ally By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A BAHAMIAN bank has been accused of aiding FTX by allegedly “sidestepping” this country’s banking laws, helping to “siphon off” customer funds and providing an up to $2bn “secret” credit line. The claims are the latest to be levied against Deltec Bank & Trust and its chairman, Jean Chalopin, in a long-running class action lawsuit by aggrieved FTX customers whose pursuit has been given fresh ammunition from the production of 7,000 pages of
Telegram messages - many featuring the Bahamian bank’s executives - by Sam Bankman-Fried’s former girlfriend. Deltec and Mr Chalopin yesterday reaffirmed their stance that the latest allegations represent more “meritless claims” that will be “vigorously defended”, while suggesting that Caroline Ellison and other former cronies of the FTX founder are motivated by their desire to settle the same class action lawsuit’s claims against them. “We are aware of the amended complaint filed
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Opposition fearing revenue loss on corporate tax delay By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Opposition’s leader yesterday voiced concern The Bahamas may miss out on significant tax revenues, and lose business, from delays in implementing the 15 percent minimum global corporate tax. Michael Pintard, speaking after the Free National Movement (FNM) met with International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Ministry of Finance officials on the issue, said the former had warned The Bahamas might forego valuable revenues by not imposing the levy on local entities that are part of multinational
groups with annual turnover in excess of 750m euros. If the necessary legislative and administrative mechanisms are not in place to collect the levy locally, the Opposition leader said profit remittances by Bahamas-domiciled entities that are part of such groups can be taxed at the full 15 percent in their home jurisdictions. This, in effect, means that revenues due to The Bahamas would be lost to multinationals’ home countries, with Mr Pintard disclosing that the IMF team had informed the FNM that other countries have already moved to give effect to the G-20/OECD
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THE Securities Commission’s top executive yesterday slammed as “absolutely untrue” assertions that The Bahamas’ key digital assets law was influenced to benefit FTX and a local international bank. Christina Rolle, its executive director, told Tribune Business the regulator had “not even heard of FTX” when the original Digital Assets and Registered Exchanges (DARE) Act was being written prior to its ultimate passage into law in 2020 when the Minnis administration was in office. She hit back after late Friday legal filings in the south Florida federal court, part of an investor class action lawsuit against those allegedly responsible for their losses as a result of FTX’s late 2022 collapse, alleged that the crypto exchange worked with Bahamas-based Deltec Bank & Trust to “foster
CHRISTINA ROLLE a lax regulatory environment” in this nation that had “no teeth”. The new claims, based on nearly 7,000 pages of Telegram messages provided by Caroline Ellison, former girlfriend and crony of FTX founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, who has herself admitted wrongdoing and gave evidence against her former lover as part of a plea deal with US federal prosecutors, alleged that Deltec and its chairman, Jean Chalopin, played a key role in crafting the DARE Act.
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