The Securities Commission of The Bahamas (SCB), in a press release, contradicted the statement made by FTX regarding the resuming of withdrawals in The Bahamas.
Securities Commission Issues FTX Statement about Bahamian Withdrawals pic.twitter.com/OZKWwicSuN
— Securities Commission of The Bahamas (@SCBgov_bs) November 12, 2022
Zane Tackett (ex-head of institutional sales at FTX), announced via Twitter on Nov. 11 that the exchange would allow withdrawals to Bahamanian clients. Tackett stated that withdrawals were possible in compliance to regulators.
1) As per the regulations and regulators of our Bahamian Headquarters, we have started to allow withdrawals from Bahamian funds. As such, you may have noticed some withdrawals processed recently by FTX as we complied to the regulators.
— Zane Tackett (@tackettzane) November 10, 2022
This led to a large amount of FTX users trying to funnel funds Through the assistance of Bahamians. Some offered bribes for FTX employees to change their country, The Bahamas, and withdraw funds.
However, the SCB said that the regulator neither “directed, authorized, or suggested” FTX to prioritize local withdrawals.
The SCB press release stated that:
“The Committee further notes that such transactions may be characterized as voidable preferences under the insolvency regime and consequently result in clawing back funds from Bahamian customers.”
The regulator clarified that withdrawals by FTX for Bahamian customers may be deemed null and therefore reversed. The regulator firmly added that it does not “condone” the preferential treatment of any FTX customers.