A literal translation into Italian of the last name of the former CEO of Ftx, the cryptocurrency trading platform, could have heralded the fate of Sam Bankman Fried, precisely: "fried banker", as in the most classic of "nomen-omen", and yet - until a few months ago - the omen could only go in a completely different direction: in fact, in April, Bankman-Fried posed next to the Prime Minister of the State of Bahamas in an embrace that showed the enthusiasm of both parties in announcing the transfer, to one of the islands of the archipelago, of the headquarters of ftx. Perhaps the country's administration thought of emulating El Salvador which was the first to adopt a crypto as legal currency.
To inaugurate the fair of disappointment, the Attorney General of the Bahamas, Ryan Pinder, which has picked up the US allegations against Bankman-Fried. These are criminal charges, still not well specified. Most likely the US will ask for extradition. The premier of the Bahamas Philip Davis did not hesitate for a minute to distance himself from the founder of Ftx, also because the rumors speak of the possible charge for fraud and money laundering. Not even users of Wikipedia thought they'd give Bankman-Fried the benefit of the doubt: since half past one tonight, the entry in the encyclopedia open-source online dedicated to Sam, calls him "a crook", even before being CEO of the company he created.
His arrest precedes by a few hours the awaited hearing of Ftx's new number one, John Ray III – restructuring specialist – to the Congress. His words so far have been critical of the previous management with a particular accusation against the "control concentration in the hands of a small group of inexperienced individuals” who did not allow standard controls, “necessary for a company that is trusted with money and assets”.
The fear, right now, is that the collapse of this society will turn into crisis of the country which housed it. The Bahamas' bet on the crypto sector had initially proved successful and helped fuel the island nation's push towards broader investment in digital assets. Enough to inspire the rival exchange “Ok x” which had announced that it was in the process of making the Bahamas the new regional hub also for Okx.
The battle of Italian savers to recover funds on Ftx
The collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange reveals opaque management and a complex system of Chinese boxes, from Cyprus to Switzerland, which makes it extremely difficult to track the path of money. Meanwhile, a investor protection committee it is taking action to encourage, in Italy and abroad, legal, collective and individual actions to support savers and specialized operators. All the subjects involved, first of all the institutions, are pressing – now – so that similar mistakes are not repeated with other platforms and are therefore engaged in the realization of collateral activities and events, seminars, publications, in-depth studies in the field of Cryptocurrencies and FinTech or anything else deemed useful for the most effective protection of savers in this sector.
