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TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2022
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AG: ‘No go’ for $100m FTX Bahamian returns By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
THE ATTORNEY General last night denied that he or any government official gave permission for FTX’s now-arrested founder to violate a freeze order by returning $100m in assets to 1,500 purported “Bahamian” clients. Ryan Pinder KC, in response to Tribune Business inquiries, said “no authorisation was given by any party” after an e-mail
• ‘No authorisation’ given to SBF in e-mail exchange • 1,500 ‘Bahamians’ got assets out despite freeze • FTX chief’s arrest blows up ‘collusion’ allegation
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Bahamas battles for control over $256m FTX properties By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A MAJOR legal battle was brewing last night for control of $256.3m worth of Bahamian real estate assets as FTX’s local liquidators sought to extract them from Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in the US. Brian Simms KC, the Lennox Paton senior partner, and the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) accounting duo of Kevin Cambridge and Peter Greaves, are arguing that the proper forum for winding-up “hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Bahamian real estate” is this country’s Supreme Court rather than the Delaware federal bankruptcy court. FTX Property Holdings, the entity holding 35 high-end properties purchased in developments such as Albany and GoldWynn, was
• Local liquidators move for Chapter 11 dismissal • And bring ‘hundreds of millions’ in assets home • Placing in Chapter 11 illegal under Bahamas law among those placed into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware by the crypto currency exchange’s founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, who was last night arrested pending his extradition to the US to face criminal charges over its implosion. However, the Bahamian provisional liquidators are arguing that
Central Bank’s waiver drives $202m sovereign debt boost By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net Incentives that sparked almost $202m of local investor demand for The Bahamas’ US dollar bonds has been “very, very significant” in driving an international debt turnaround, a senior official said yesterday. Simon Wilson, the Ministry of Finance’s financial secretary, told Tribune Business that the Central Bank’s temporary elimination of the 5 percent Investment Currency Market (ICM) premium for Bahamians and residents wishing to purchase the Government’s international foreign currency bonds had been “very successful” in expanding the pool of available investors. This, in turn, appears to have helped restore international capital market confidence in The Bahamas’ sovereign debt. And, with listed bond issues now trading close to ‘par’ or face value, and yields having dropped by close to 50 percent in percentage terms, the recovery will help to lower the country’s borrowing costs when it taps global investors again - although the Government is aiming to avoid this for the entire 2022-2023 fiscal year. “Based on the information we have, it has been very significant,” Mr Wilson told this newspaper of the impact of the Central
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SAM BANKMAN-FRIED
exchange between himself and Sam Bankman-Fried revealed the latter sought his go-ahead to “open up withdrawals for all Bahamian customers” just hours before the Supreme Court ordered FTX’s local operations be placed in provisional liquidation. The documents, which emerged in the Delaware bankruptcy court around the same time that Mr Pinder and the Government were last night announcing Mr
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JOHN BRIDGEWATER
HARRISON MOXEY
Digital pass to drive jitney unity for 90k
joint venture between the UPTC and Bluestone Labs, a Bahamasbased financial technology and digital identity provider. It will be available through a new ‘Transit’ feature within Bluestone’s B-ID mobile app, which can be accessed via the Internet and downloaded on Andriod and iOS devices. The join venture partners, in a statement, said the app will feature “advanced smart routing technology to plan bus trips in advance, real-time ETA (estimated time of arrival) of buses, a rating system, and SOS reporting connected to the UPTC dispatch centres”. They added: “Parents can have peace of mind watching live movement of busses on an in-app interactive virtual map, knowing that they will be sent notifications when their child has boarded, hopped off the bus and arrived at their destination.” The Jitney Pass will also “phase out cash payments for bus fares in favour of digital payments, QR codes and value tap cards using The Bahamas’ Central
DIGITAL technology was yesterday hailed as a key element in driving New Providence’s jitney industry towards the longpromised unified transportation system through an initiative that will launch in early 2023 Harrison Moxey, the United Public Transportation Company’s (UPTC) president, told Tribune Business that the electronic UPTC Jitney Pass will give Bahamians access to 220 jitneys, and cover more than 40 routes, that collectively transport between 60,000 and 90,000 passengers per day. The Jitney Pass has been created via a six-year
RYAN PINDER KC
Minnis blames Christie Gov’t for Oban debacle
FTX Property Holdings has no connection to the US as all its assets and creditors are located in this nation. And, as the company has only done business in The Bahamas, it should naturally be wound-up here as such a process will be “extremely difficult, if not impossible, to administer” from Delaware. The trio are also asserting that FTX Property Holdings’ placement into Chapter 11 protection violated Bahamian law. They allege that the consent of its second director, FTX Digital Markets chief Ryan Salame, was also required for this but there is “no evidence” it was forthcoming. The eventual sale of FTX’s Bahamian real estate assets, all of which are concentrated in western New Providence, represent a major source of recovery for the collapsed crypto exchange’s investors and creditors
By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net
PHILIP DAVIS
By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net DR HUBERT Minnis yesterday sought to blame the last Christie administration’s failure to conduct “proper due diligence” for the $5.5bn Oban oil refinery debacle, while admitting that his government “took the hit”. Challenged over the controversy by government MPs in the House of Assembly during debate on the National Investment Funds Bill, which will repeal and replace the Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, the former prime minister argued that his assumption of responsibility for the lack of scrutiny applied to Oban’s principals was “what leadership is about”. Tribune Business revealed multiple concerns about the background of several Oban executives, including one who was accused of misappropriating multi-million dollar sums in two separate lawsuits, immediately after the group signed a Heads of Agreement with the
DR HUBERT MINNIS then-administration for its Grand Bahama-based project. Taunted by government MPs on the matter, Dr Minnis argued that Oban was inherited from the former Christie administration which should have performed the necessary due diligence. He added that his government “assumed” this had been done, but it was not, as he sought to shift blame to his predecessor. “Unfortunately what we did not know was they did not do proper due diligence, and we got caught with that,” Dr Minnis said of the predecessor administration.
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