In Africa, FTX Posed as Haven from Tumbling Currencies, Inflation

Cryptocurrency exchange’s ambassadors recruited new customers through glitzy events, $5 sign-up bonuses and giveaways

· FTX was aggressively recruiting new customers whose funds are now stuck in bankruptcy proceedings. U.S. prosecutors have charged FTX’s founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, with fraud for allegedly stealing billions of dollars of customer funds from FTX and of defrauding investors and lenders to his trading firm, Alameda Research.

Weeks before cryptocurrency exchange FTX filed for bankruptcy, dozens of young Nigerians in skin-tight dresses and brightly colored suits shimmied under limbo bars, posed for photos in front of the company’s logo and sipped expensive liquor at a swanky beachfront venue.

The party in Lagos, Nigeria, was part of the Bahamas-based exchange’s push into Africa, where, in the final days before its implosion, FTX was aggressively recruiting new customers whose funds are now stuck in bankruptcy proceedings. U.S. prosecutors have charged FTX’s founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, with fraud for allegedly stealing billions of dollars of customer funds from FTX and of defrauding investors and lenders to his trading firm, Alameda Research. He has pleaded not guilty.