On September 9, 2022, a few months prior to FTX’s declaration of bankruptcy in November, the Futures Exchange (FTX) purchased, for an undisclosed amount, a 30% ownership stake in the alternative asset manager SkyBridge.
In an interview with CNBC on January 13, Scaramucci stated that, as a result of FTX’s problems, SkyBridge is moving forward with the repurchase of the stake, but that the transaction wouldn’t be completed until the first half of the year came to an end.
“I think it will resolve itself favorably” Scaramucci stated, noting that they are awaiting approval from the attorneys, bankruptcy officials, and investment bankers to determine precisely what they will be buying back and when they can buy it.
Scaramucci speaks on foul play within FTX
In a comment, Scaramucci expressed his belief that foul play was probably involved in the case between FTX and its founder and former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried.
“I think it’s very clear now that there was fraud” he said. Noting that, without saying so, all of that should be left up to the judicial system to determine. Although three out of SBF’s four coworkers have already entered guilty pleas and provided the prosecutors with an explanation of their actions.
Caught up with @Scaramucci today. FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried bought a 30% stake in Scaramucci's SkyBridge Capital before FTX collapsed. Now Scaramucci says that he's confident he'll be able to buy that stake back. Given new facts, he also alleges SBF committed fraud pic.twitter.com/jxltXdjCKW
— Arjun Kharpal (@ArjunKharpal) January 13, 2023
The SkyBridge CEO’s current statements seem to be in sharp contrast to those he made in November 2022 during a CNBC interview. During the interview, Scaramucci noted that he wouldn’t like to use the term “fraud” to describe the FTX situation due to its legal implications and that we have to “give everybody the presumption of innocence.” He also told “Sam and his family to tell the truth to their investors, get to the bottom.”
On its website, SkyBridge states that as of September 30, 2022, it managed assets worth $2.2 billion, with about $800 million of those assets consisting of investments tied to digital assets.
Sam Bankman-Fried and Barry Silbert: the jokers of the Crypto winter?
In response to the purported pranks and roles played by Sam Bankman-Fried and Barry Silbert, the CEO of the Digital Currency Group, during the crypto winter, Mike Novogratz, the CEO of Galaxy Digital, notes that there is a part of him that wants to punch both of them.
Novogratz stated that the FTX saga and collapse ultimately ended up costing Galaxy approximately $77 million in an interview with Bloomberg that was published on January 13. He said it would have been worse had he not been warned by a billionaire friend who knew SBF and had mentioned that FTX’s sister company, Alameda, was missing money. As a result, he hasn’t been a big admirer of SBF or other reported inappropriate behavior in the sector during the past year.
“The toxic masculine side of me would like to punch them both in the jaw,” he said of SBF and Silbert, before adding specifically on SBF: “You’ve got to be f—ing kidding me. Like, really, you a——?”
He added that Galaxy Digital could withstand the same circumstances for another 18 months, but anything more might be detrimental to the company’s workforce. Novogratz acknowledged that despite 2022 being such a volatile year for the crypto sector, he still supports cryptocurrencies.
Although he says that he regrets not withdrawing more money from the market earlier in 2022, before FTX and even the Terra/LUNA ecosystem collapsed, In spite of that, he claims he was able to withdraw more than $1 billion before the year officially started.