FTX Assets Frozen by Bahamian Regulator

The Bahamas Securities Commission said it was a “prudent course of action” to “preserve assets and stabilize the company.”

Nov 10, 2022 at 10:34 p.m. UTC

Updated Nov 10, 2022 at 11:17 p.m. UTC

Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX CEO — FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (Jesse Hamilton/CoinDesk)

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Bahamian regulators have frozen the assets of FTX Digital Markets and related parties, calling it a “prudent course of action” to “preserve assets and stabilize the company,” according to a press release on Thursday.

The Securities Commission of the Bahamas also suspended FTX’s registration and appointed an attorney – Brian Sims, a senior partner at Lennox Paton – as a provisional liquidator of the assets. FTX is based in the Bahamas and is a separate entity from FTX US.

“The commission is aware of public statements suggesting that clients’ assets were mishandled, mismanaged and/or transferred to Alameda Research. Based on the commission’s information, any such actions would have been contrary to normal governance, without client consent and potentially unlawful,” the commission said in its release.

FTX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Bloomberg first reported on the news.

UPDATE (Nov. 10, 22:56 UTC): Updated with details throughout and removed "Bloomberg" from headline.

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