Bahamas supreme court approves 'provisional liquidators' for FTX

Published at: Nov. 15, 2022

The Supreme Court of the Bahamas — where FTX Digital Marketsis headquartered — has approved two provisional liquidators to oversee the crypto exchange’s assets.

According to a Nov. 14 announcement from the Bahamas' Securities Commission, the country’s supreme court approved the appointments of PricewaterhouseCoopers advisory partner Kevin Cambridge and partner Peter Greaves to act as “joint provisional liquidators” for FTX. The securities regulator also applied to have Brian Simms, a senior partner of Bahamas-based commercial law firm Lennox Patton, as a provision liquidator on Nov. 10.

“Given the magnitude, urgency, and international implications of the unfolding events with regard to FTX, the Commission recognized that it had to, and moved swiftly to use its regulatory powers [...] to further protect the interests of clients, creditors, and other stakeholders globally of FTX Digital Markets Ltd,” said the Securities Commission.

The regulator added:

“Over the coming days and weeks, the Commission expects to engage with other supervisory authorities on a regulator-to-regulator basis as this event is multijurisdictional in nature.”

FTX announced on Nov. 11 that the company would be filing for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 in the United States’ District of Delaware. The proceedings included more than 130 firms in FTX Group, including FTX Trading, FTX US, under West Realm Shires Services, Alameda Research, and its Bahamas-based subsidiary FTX Digital Markets. Sam Bankman-Fried also resigned his position amid the firm’s liquidity crisis and bankruptcy.

Related: FTX’s ongoing saga: Everything that’s happened until now

The appointment of a provisional liquidator followed the Bahamas securities regulator suspending FTX’s registration status and freezing its local subsidiary’s assets on Nov. 10. The Royal Bahamas Police Force was also reportedly looking into FTX as part of an investigation of possible criminal misconduct.

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