Amid concerns that charities may be asked to return donations received by FTX, Bishop Lawrence Rolle of International Deliverance Praying Ministry said yesterday that his church used the $50,000 donation it received from FTX Digital Markets within a month.
“The feeding ministry is $10,000 a week,” said Rolle.
“The record and everything is there. We spent the last portion of it for Easter. The feeding program is on Wednesdays, where we have about 1,000 people; Sunday, about 500; and through the week, it’s people with autism, the sick and shut-in.”
Rolle’s feeding network was one of several local charities that received a portion of a $500,000 donation from FTX Digital Markets at the start of this year.
At the time of the donations, in January, Vice President of FTX Digital Markets Valdez Russell explained the company’s mission.
“At FTX, we will have a sustained focus on some of the following initiatives: health and wellness; the empowerment of women and children; hunger and food insecurity; climate change and environmental issues; along with the engagement with selective community outreach programs and partners to create a better quality of life for Bahamians and residents,” he said.
Rolle said yesterday, “The money was real; they was real people. I have the records of when it hit my account.
“And the toys they gave last Christmas was real. The toys was as high as the roof of the church. And I’m talking about expensive toys, that wasn’t a fake company. One of those toys cost over two to $300, and they had about 300 toys. I saw it.”
Rolle also added that he has already spent a $37,000 donation from the government.
“When I first got the money [from FTX], I thought I was going to be able to pay back — I put like $31,000 on [a fixed account] and I borrowed $31,000 against the money, but hardly where ain’t no money coming in there, I had to break it and get the money back,” he explained.
“The feeding ministry is so huge.”
Other local charities that received a portion of the $500,000 FTX donation are Hands for Hunger with $250,000; Links Safe House with $100,000 and the Nassau chapter with $20,000; Bahamas Cancer Society with $50,000; the Salvation Army with $50,000; and Occupy Mentorship with $25,000.
