(Bloomberg) — A luxury jet that was intended to ferry FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried and other executives to-and-from the Bahamas before the crypto platform went bankrupt is being turned over to US authorities.
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The jet, an Embraer Legacy EMB-135BJ, is being flown from the Bahamas to Florida where it will be surrendered to law enforcement, according to papers filed Friday by federal prosecutors. US Marshals have already seized a second jet that also was meant to be used by FTX. Authorities are seeking court permission to sell both aircraft.
The Legacy had been held by a Bahamian charter and subject to an ownership dispute in FTX’s bankruptcy. Paul Aranha, founder of Trans Island Airways, said in a sworn statement last year that he acquired the aircraft with financing from FTX as part of a handshake deal with Bankman-Fried.
An FTX spokesman said the company’s advisers worked closely with the US government on the agreement to return the Legacy, the second aircraft purchased with corporate funds recovered during the Chapter 11 case.
Aranha has said he started flying Bankman-Fried to-and-from the Bahamas in 2021, roughly a year before FTX filed Chapter 11. Bankman-Fried regularly traveled by private jet between the Bahamas, New York and Washington the year before FTX went bankrupt, Bloomberg News has reported.
From October 2021, Aranha’s charter business provided more than $15 million worth of private charter and cargo flights as well as other services to Bankman-Fried, other FTX executives, employees and their friends and family, according to a September court filing. By January 2022, the volume of flights required additional aircraft which Aranha acquired with financing from FTX, court papers say.
Bankman-Fried never got a chance to enjoy the Legacy or the second jet, a Bombardier Global 5000 BD-700-1A11. FTX requested state-of-the art WiFi and new interiors, upgrades that were still being worked on at the time FTX collapsed in November 2022, court papers say. As a result, no one associated with FTX ever flew on the Global or the Legacy, according to Aranha.
Federal authorities have agreed to compensate Aranha and his companies for maintenance costs incurred before the jets were seized and expenses associated with transporting the Legacy to the US.
The Legacy is to be delivered to Ft. Lauderdale Executive Airport in Florida, according to court papers.
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