FTX’s Bahamian firm spent a staggering sum of money on luxurious motels and lodging, flights and meals within the 9 months earlier than the inventory market crashed, court docket paperwork have revealed.
In accordance with chapter court docket paperwork reviewed by Enterprise Insider, FTX Digital Markets spent $40 million between January and September, earlier than submitting for chapter in November attributable to “liquidity issues.”
Greater than $15 million went to luxurious motels and lodging, with $5.eight million going to 1 resort: the Albany Lodge. That is the posh resort the place Sam Bankman-Fried lived in his $30 million penthouse till his arrest, the report added.
About $three.6 million went to the Grand Hyatt, a four-star resort that hosted British royalty in March. $800,000 was additionally spent on the five-star Rosewood resort.
As well as, almost $7 million was spent on eating and leisure, with about half on catering, in response to the paperwork. Almost $four million was spent on flights and over $500,000 on postage and supply.
FTX even struck a non-public take care of an airline to ship its Amazon orders from a Miami warehouse, because the e-commerce big didn’t ship to the Bahamas, in response to London’s Monetary Instances.
The FT added that the agency additionally supplied Bahamian workers with a “full set of lined automobiles and gasoline for all staff.” [and] Limitless journey with all bills lined to any workplace anyplace on the earth”.
In December, a former worker revealed the extent of the corporate’s extreme luxurious spending, calling it “cult-like.” “The entire operation was iconic and foolishly inefficient,” he mentioned on the time.
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FTX additionally made quite a few donations to native charities and organizations within the Bahamas.
There was hypothesis that a few of these donations might have to be returned because the Caribbean island nation tries to maneuver on, in response to a Jan. eight report in native media.
Bankman-Fried pleaded not responsible to eight prison prices within the US District Courtroom for the Southern District of New York on January three.