Jan 9, 2023 at 05:47Contents
SBF was living life ‘la vida loca’ in the Bahamas, court records reveal.
In just 9 months, from January to September, the former CEO of FTX Sam Bankman-Fried blew through $40 million on luxurious hotels, private flights, and entertainment.
He also generously granted several local Bahamian charities and organizations millions of dollars, which may be retrieved due to the federal charges stacked against him. A huge blow to those deserving.
Based on reports filed at the Delaware bankruptcy court, lawyers publicized that the crypto exchange FTX did not produce any customer revenue. Apparently, SBF didn’t get the memo and spent extravagantly.
Let’s take a look at how SBF lived in those 9 months according to the Delaware filings.
SBF accommodation spend
$15.4 million spent on his living and accommodation expenses. $5.8 million was exhausted at the Albany Hotel alone, where he was located and arrested late last year.
A night at the Albany Hotel could cost you up to $60,000 per night, depending on the season.
He also owned (now up for sale) a $30 million penthouse on one of the islands.
Keeping up to his new found standards, SBF used $3.6 million at the Grand Hyatt. $28,954 washed down the drain at the hotel in March 2022. The most affordable room here would fetch $369 a night.
Still using company resources, SBF threw $800,000 at the Rosewood hotel, which normally costs $1,100 per night.
Employees accommodation spend
Before the grand fall of FTX, 1,310 employees took home a decent wage from the crypto exchange. However, for those employees lucky enough to travel in and out of the island nation, that equated to almost $12,000 per employee to outfit their accommodation at various hotels in the Bahamas during the 9 months.
Additionally, Alameda still owes $55,000 to the Margaritaville Beach Resort where FTX employees lived it up in 20 of the hotel suites for multiple months.
Meals and entertainment
$6.9 million was devoured here. Close to half of this amount was used for catering, with $1.4 million alone going to the Hyatt. ‘Six Stars Cater’, a Nassau-based caterer took home an extra $1 million.
Transport and logistics
Flights in and out of the Bahamas racked a further $3.9 million. And because Amazon doesn’t deliver to the Bahamas, an addition of over $500,000 was used to hire private planes to fly in Amazon packages from Miami.
What about the rest of the money?
Investigations are still ongoing as to where the remainder of the cash was utilized.
Perhaps some of it could be the $2,500 SBF often spent on lunch with his top employees at a Nassau Bistro restaurant.
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