Sam Bankman-Fried offer to pay national debt ‘never entertained’, says OPM

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

As of Tuesday, October 3, 2023

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune News Editor

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE Office of the Prime Minister said Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis never entertained proposals from Sam Bankman-Fried to pay off the country’s national debt.

OPM’s statement came after The Times of London published an excerpt of an upcoming biography of Bankman-Fried.

The excerpt said: “Sam explained that he was trying to decide whether simply to pay off the $9 billion Bahamas national debt himself, so the country could fix roads and build schools and so on. He’d recently met the new prime minister to discuss this idea and some others. I learnt later from one of the prime minister’s aides that after the Bahamian general election in September 2021, Sam was the first person the prime minister had wanted to meet.”

Acclaimed author Michael Lewis wrote the biography: “Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon.”

The book comes out today.

In response to the excerpt, OPM Director of Communications Latrae Rahming said yesterday: “We wish to clarify recent reports surrounding a meeting between Prime Minister Philip Davis and Mr Sam Bankman-Fried. Discussions were strictly confined to FTX’s relocation and its operations in the Bahamas, specifically concerning the invitation extended to the Prime Minister for the inauguration of FTX’s new headquarters. Mr Bankman-Fried advised the Prime Minister that FTX had changed its position from a satellite office to opening a headquarters. Prime Minister Davis used the platform at the company’s opening to signal that The Bahamas is open for business in the digital currency space.”

Dawes 7 months ago

Why wouldn't the PM entertain this. If someone came to me and said he would pay off my debts i would at least entertain them and see what they expected.

bahamianson 7 months ago

Have we not learned to be careful in whom shares our bed? Why would our prime ministers want to jump so quickly when a foreigner offers money without checking the background? Then, when the plp gets the money and the praise for bringing him in, they say the white man or foreigner is the devil. How can you give the white foreigner the red carpet, take his money, then call him a racist devil? Such hypocrites we are....

FreeportFreddy 7 months ago

Stop with the White Black ...please

AnObserver 7 months ago

Step 1: Invite crypto scammers to the country.

Step 2: ????

Step 3: Profit!

ExposedU2C 7 months ago

Bingo!

TalRussell 7 months ago

Acclaimed author Michael Lewis, will need wrote his next biography on the:: “Going Infinite:The Rise and Fall of Freeport - Involving SBR's Approach Buy." --- Yes?

sheeprunner12 7 months ago

We must believe SBF .................. Our PM has been caught in so many lies, that it is hard to believe what he says.

This is the track record of PLPs............. from Pindling to Davis. They find wealthy persons of suspect character, woo them to The Bahamas, exploit our country's good name, and use them to enrich PLP cronies and then cast them aside when the money is gone.

Take a walk through history with the PLP and their BIG FOREIGN "sugar daddy donors" ........... Carlos Lehder, The Sheik, Nygard, Izmirlian/Chinese and now SBF.

Did I leave out any?????????

Porcupine 7 months ago

Yes. You left out the next one. It would be funny, if it weren't true.

TalRussell 7 months ago

Let's be honest. There's no taking a walk through an unvarnished history with the "foreigner sugar daddy donors'' ........... Without discussing what negative strengths such a person as Robert Lee Vesco brought to the colony's governance. --- Of important note. ---- SBF drove around Nassau Town, behind the wheel of a Toyota Motor Car. Whilst, Robert were behind the wheel of his VW Beetle. --- Yes?

Sign in to comment

Or login with:

OpenID

The Tribune