By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Phillip “Brave” Davis has once again insisted that the collapse of FTX has nothing to do with The Bahamas, saying “you don’t blame the jurisdiction, you blame the bad actors”.

The collapse of the crypto giant has grabbed local and international headlines, with some scrutiny and criticism being levelled at The Bahamas government and its digital regulatory framework.

“You know, what is sad is that FTX’s liquidation is not the only company, major large company that would’ve went into liquidation in The Bahamas,” Mr Davis told reporters Friday. “We had Commodore. We had Banco Ambrosiano. We had Nassau Bank and Trust, many of them that had a lot of ricocheting effect.

“It’s like saying that The Bahamas lacks (a) regulatory (regime). It is not the lacking of regulatory regime. It is actually bad actors and bad actors all countries have. What about Enron in the United States? What about those major collapses? And looking at what’s happening in the tech industry. You start seeing some of these same tech giants falling as well.

“So, it has nothing to do with our reputation or what we do. When you have bad actors, you have a regime to be able to identify them and get them out and we have that regime in place and so you don’t blame the jurisdiction, you blame the bad actors and we are ferreting out the bad actors.”

Mr Davis also said he believed his administration will soon have some answers related to the FTX debacle “to set the record straight”.

FTX, which is headquartered in The Bahamas, along with its affiliates filed for bankruptcy in the US last month after facing a liquidity crisis and coming under scrutiny following reports that it mismanaged customer assets.

Investigations into the firm’s failure led to last week’s arrest of FTX former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, who faces several fraud charges in the US, including wire fraud, money laundering, conspiracy to commit fraud and violating campaign finance laws.

The disgraced former billionaire is currently on remand at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services after being denied bail by Chief Magistrate Joyann-Ferguson Pratt.

A prison official reportedly told the Washington Post that the 30-year-old spends his time behind bars watching movies and reading articles about himself until he can be freed from the facility.

The Tribune can confirm that attorneys representing the embattled former FTX CEO filed for a new bail application in the Supreme Court on Thursday.

And, according to multiple reports, the 30-year-old is expected to appear in court again today to reverse his decision to fight extradition to the United States.

Lawyers did not return calls for comment on the matter up to press time last night.