NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Global discussions, speculation and accusations of corruption surround the FTX debacle, in the country along with opposition members calling for transparency from the government on the issue, where a billion-dollar cryptocurrency exchange collapsed, its owner filed for bankruptcy and was arraigned then remanded until next February.
Many onlookers have expressed concern over whether or not this issue will hurt the country’s foreign business sector, and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Fred Mitchell said that this is an issue like several others that happened in the Bahamas but the rhetoric is overgrown and does not reflect the country’s ability to do business.
“It’s a business failure, business failures happen all the time. The jurisdiction in which the failure took place or has taken place has nothing to do with the actual alleged crimes or misdeeds.
“Fraud, for example, happens in any country, it doesn’t turn on the jurisdiction; so it isn’t useful in my view, at this juncture to be wagging fingers and saying this one’s at fault and the next ones at fault.
“The fact is it was a business failure we need to find out who’s responsible and if we can get recovery for those people who were damaged, fine, those people who did wrong, should be punished,” Mitchell said.
The Foreign Affairs Minister added that this is not the first time that something like this has happened in the country, he gave examples and said that the Bahamas has a reputation that many other countries tend to envy and that we have survived business failures in the past.
“So my general attitude is one of a minimalist, which is to not see this as anything which is extraordinary, except for the fact that the numbers are quite big, but even in the United States, you’ve had these kinds of massive business failures and they’ve survived and I expect that we will survive.”
As the new CEO of FTX John Ray III deals with the company’s liquidation process, he has heavily criticized the Bahamian government and regulators, for ‘pushback’ saying that there seems to be a lack of transparency which he describes as ‘extraordinary’ and ‘irregular’ in this kind of procedure; In response, Mitchell said that he sees ‘no point’ in making allegations and all parties should be working together to get to the bottom of the issue.
“The problem is, who did wrong? Can we punish those who did wrong, and can we get compensation for those people who have suffered loss?
“The rest of it, I’m not sure if that is useful to go down that road. The Bahamas, six million tourist come here every year or so, they enjoy great vacations, […] there’s no negative associated with it.
“So, those who suggest that because this failure happened somehow in the Bahamas that this somehow says something about our own people, I think those are misjudgments,” Mitchell said.
