Bahamas Securities Commission has confirmed it froze $3.5B worth of FTX assets. In a report released on 29th December, the agency disclosed that it withheld the funds when the exchange filed for bankruptcy.
FTX filed for bankruptcy in November following its inability to process user withdrawals. Following the bankruptcy filing, $650 million was moved from the exchange’s wallet to an unknown destination. Investigations into the missing assets are still ongoing, and the exploiter is still unknown.
Bahamas Regulator Insists On Keeping Asset
Bahamas Securities revealed that releasing the assets will be a “significant risk.” The regulator also claimed that the dissipation of the assets would be detrimental to customers and creditors. The agency also confirmed that Sam Bankman-Frieds and other FTX executives don’t have access to the confiscated assets.
The commission confirmed it would continue to withhold digital assets until it gets instructions from the Bahamas Supreme Court to release them to customers and creditors or if it receives clarity on how the firm’s insolvency is to be handled.
The securities watchdog confirmed it withheld the assets after the Bahamas Supreme Court approved a sealing order to withhold the acquisitions.
Bahamian Regulator’s Role Criticized By FTX
Bahamas Securities’ role in the scandal involving FTX has not gone down well with the exchange. The company’s legal representatives have filed a petition requesting that Bahaman Regulators be restricted from accessing the U.S. division’s cloud database. This database access will provide them with data from its Google, Slack, and Amazon Web Service accounts.
The representatives stated in the filing that the request for access to its database was unnecessary. Furthermore, it would pose a significant risk to both customers and debtors. They also added that the Bahaman Regulators have not been able to justify the basis of the request for this access.
The exchange’s legal team also stated that their efforts to work with the Bahaman Regulators have proved futile. They disclosed that the commission has refused to disclose any information about the “diverted assets” to them in all their conversation with the agency.
