FTX filed a lawsuit against Anthony Scaramucci and his hedge fund SkyBridge Capital as part of a broader effort to recover money for the insolvent company’s creditors.
The lawsuit against the former White House communications director is one of 23 filed Friday in Delaware bankruptcy court. According to court documents, the plaintiffs also include digital asset exchange Crypto.com and political groups such as FWD.US, founded by Mark Zuckerberg.
FTX claims that during the crypto winter of 2022, founder Sam Bankman-Fried “ran a campaign of influence buying and making generous and eye-catching ‘investments’ throughout the year.”
“One connection into which Bankman-Fried invested considerable time and money” was Scaramucci for his “established financial, political and social” network, the filing said.
FTX is now pursuing these investments as it claims they “produced little to no benefit” and “instead only served to bolster Bankman-Fried’s standing in the world of politics and traditional finance.”
The bankrupt crypto company claims Bankman-Fried invested $67 million in various SkyBridge projects in 2022 as Scaramucci “sought a bailout.” SkyBridge’s assets under management fell to $2.2 billion from a high of $9 billion in 2015, the filing said.
A representative for Scaramucci declined to comment.
In September 2022, Bankman-Fried and Scaramucci announced this FTX’s venture arm would acquire a 30% stake in SkyBridge. Financial details were not disclosed at this time. Scaramucci said at the time that the investment reflected that he was “thinking about the next decade of SkyBridge.”
Read more: Scaramucci’s SkyBridge Capital was on the rise, and then along came FTX
Within months, FTX had filed for bankruptcy and Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas on fraud charges.
The case is FTX Trad. Ltd., Bankr. D. Del., No. 22-11068, Complaint 11/8/24.
A newsletter for the bravest and smartest leaders:
CEO Daily is your morning dossier on the news, trends and conversations business leaders need to know.
Sign in Here.