What Kind of Mess Did SBF Leave Behind in the Bahamas?

On the ground in Nassau, where FTX's riches are up for grabs.

- KEVIN T. DUGAN

EVERYONE IN NASSAU is talking about it: At Café Matisse, an upscale restaurant near Parliament, two men loudly discuss the fallout from Sam Bankman-Fried’s leveled $32 billion business. At a small coffee shop in a mall across the street from the site where FTX planned to build a new headquarters, a local businessman approaches me to ask if I am “the FTX guy.” (I’m a white guy with dark curly hair, but come on). Local radio stations report the news at the top of each broadcast. Rumors are everywhere about who got supersize donations, the blowout parties at Bankman-Fried’s apartment held before the crash, luxury condos bought for multiples over asking price. “The Realtors here never made so much money in their life,” one developer tells me. Gone, though, are most of the signs and advertisements. Not that there were that many anyway. While the company spent big to brand the arena for the Miami Heat, one of the few visible remnants of FTX here is the digital billboard above Customs at the airport. The employees who wore company swag out to bars and restaurants downtown have pretty much all skipped the island.

In the Bahamas, where FTX has been headquartered since September 2021, the biggest question is who will get a piece of what’s left.