The Bahamian company FTX spent a staggering amount of money on luxury hotels and accommodations, flights, and food in the nine months before the exchange went bankrupt.as revealed by court files.
According to bankruptcy court documents reviewed by Business Insider, FTX Digital Markets spent $40 million between January and September, before declaring bankruptcy in November due to “liquidity problems”.
More than USD 15 million was allocated to hotels and luxury accommodation, 5.8 of them in a tourist complex: the Albany Hotel. The report adds that Sam Bankman-Fried lived in this luxurious complex in his USD 30 million penthouse until his arrest.
About $3.6 million was spent on the Grand Hyatt, a four-star hotel that hosted British royalty in March. $800,000 was also spent on the five-star Rosewood resort.
Furthermore, according to the documents, nearly $7 million was spent on dining and entertainment, half of it on catering. Almost USD 4 million was spent on flights and more than 500,000 on shipping costs.
FTX even reached a private agreement with an airline to transport its Amazon orders from a Miami warehouse, since the e-commerce giant did not deliver to the Bahamas.according to the London Financial Times.
The FT added that the company also provided staff in the Bahamas with a “full set of covered cars and gasoline for all employees [y] Unlimited travel, with all expenses covered, to any office worldwide”.
In December, a former employee revealed the extent of the company’s excessive luxury spending, calling it “cult”. “The whole operation was iconically and moronically inefficient,” he said then.
FTX also made numerous donations to local charities and organizations in the Bahamas..
There has been speculation that some of these donations may have to be returned.as the Caribbean island nation tries to move on, according to a report published Jan. 8 in local media.
Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to eight criminal charges in the Southern District Court of New York on January 3..
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