FTX Founder’s Parents Bought Home in Bahamas Using Company Money

Then CEO of FTX Sam Bankman-Fried testifies during a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee on Capitol Hill, in Washington, on Dec. 8, 2021. Alex Wong/Getty Images

The parents of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and other senior executives at the bankrupt crypto exchange had purchased properties worth millions of dollars in the Bahamas using funds from the firm.

In total, Bankman-Fried’s parents and FTX execs purchased at least 19 properties in the Bahamas during the past two years that are collectively valued at roughly $121 million, according to a Reuters report citing property records. One of the documents, related to a home with beach access, showed Bankman Fried’s parents—Stanford University law professors Barbara Fried and Joseph Bankman—as signatories. The property, valued at $16.4 million, is documented as a “vacation home.”

When Reuters inquired as to how Bankman-Fried’s parents paid for the property, a spokesperson for the couple said that the duo has been trying to return it back to FTX.

“Since before the bankruptcy proceedings, Mr. Bankman and Ms. Fried have been seeking to return the deed to the company and are awaiting further instructions,” the spokesperson said.

A unit of FTX purchased 15 properties valued at around $100 million in 2021 and 2022, with its most expensive buy being a $30 million penthouse at a resort community called Albany. Records show that it was intended to be used as a “residence for key personnel.”

Three condominiums, valued at between $950,000 and $2 million, were purchased by Bankman-Fried, Gary Wang, FTX co-founder, and Nishad Singh, the former head of engineering, for residential use. In total, seven condominiums valued at almost $72 million were purchased by the FTX unit.

During the company’s first bankruptcy hearing on Tuesday, an FTX attorney said that the organization was “effectively run as a personal fiefdom of Sam Bankman-Fried,” according to CNBC.

“What we are dealing with is a different sort of animal,” said FTX counsel James Bromley. “Unfortunately, the FTX debtors were not particularly well run, and that is an understatement.”

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Bankman-Fried’s mother Barbara was the co-founder of “Mind the Gap” PAC which sought to fund Democrat candidates. Bankman-Fried was also the second-largest individual donor to Democrats in the 2020 election cycle.

The House Financial Services Committee is set to hold a hearing next month to discuss the FTX collapse. According to a report by The Washington Free Beacon, Bankman-Fried and other FTX co-founders contributed more than $300,000 to nine members of the committee.

Some of the largest contributions went to Democrats who were on the Digital Assets Working Group of the committee that worked on crypto regulation.

Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.), who sits on the committee, had also hired Bankman-Fried’s brother back in 2019. Gabe was employed as staff of the House for two years.

In an interview with The Epoch Times, Republican George Santos, a newly elected GOP representative from New York, said that he was worried about Democrats downplaying violations conducted by Bankman-Fried.

He pointed out that the House committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) has already indicated that she will not investigate FTX and Bankman-Fried “as a class.”

“So I’m a little concerned that the Democrats right now as lame-ducks in Congress, will deflect the issue between now and the start of the new Congress,” he said. “That’s something I’m very interested in investigating.”