By: Staff Writer
November 15, 2022
The Royal Bahamas Police force are working with the Securities Commission to investigate if any “criminal misconduct occurred” in view of the collapse of FTX, they announced over the weekend.
The RBPF said in a statement to the media: “In light of the collapse of FTX globally and the provisional liquidation of FTX Digital Markets Ltd., a team of financial investigators from the Financial Crimes Investigation Branch are working closely with the Bahamas Securities Commission to investigate if any criminal misconduct occurred.”
All of the fallout from the FTX collapse has prompted the country’s second crypto-exchange, OKX, to promise to come clean with their books and show “proof” of their company’s soundness.
Tim Byun, global government relations officer at OKX, told Caribbean Magazine Plus: “Crypto was founded on the principles of decentralization and transparency, with the goal of restoring financial power to the people. When companies deviate from this, it has devastating effects on the industry and investors, as we’ve seen with FTX.”
The FTX collapse has been cataclysmic as billions of dollars were found to be missing from the company after its chief executive officer tried to sell the company to a second cryptocurrency exchange before investors lost all of their money.
The whirlwind around the company began when its ceo, Sam Bankman-Fried, tried to sell the company to another cryptocurrency exchange, Binance.
Binance signeda non-binding letter of intent only to walk away from a deal 24-hours later, citing massive irregularities with FTX’s books and it being overleveraged upon further investigation to what some analysts claim is well in the billions of dollars.
FTX has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. and the Bahamian courts have appointed a liquidator for the company, with investigators trying to piece together what went wrong with the company.
FTX had a grand opening in the Bahamas earlier this year, with Bahamian officials hoping it would be the first of many in the cryptocurrency business to domicile in The Bahamas. Not long after its launch, the company hosted the Crypto Bahamas conference that saw cryptocurrency firms and notables from around the world descend upon the Bahamas in late April. One of the companies that took the opportunity to join FTX was OKX, who announced the launch of their Bahamas based office last month.
Mr Byun also said: “While OKX has been committed to the principles of decentralization and transparency since day one and maintains a mission of giving our customers the technology to trade and invest responsibly, we understand that it’s now more important than ever to help people understand why they can feel comfortable using OKX. OKX will share proof of our reserves in the coming weeks to provide clarity on the funds we hold.
“The OKX reserves will be audited and verified through an advanced cryptographic accounting procedure in order to prove our solvency without compromising data security.
“The crypto industry, overall, is at a point where companies need to prioritize transparency in order to repair customer trust in the industry, and OKX intends to champion this movement.”