The management of bankrupt crypto exchange FTX has launched a lawsuit against American financier Anthony Scaramucci and his hedge fund company SkyBridge Capital to recover money invested by the program’s former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). The legal action is part of a larger effort by the FTX bankruptcy estate to recoup funds misappropriated by previous administrations and pay its existing creditors.
FTX Deal With Scaramucci Shows No Profit, Lawyers Claim
According to a recent Bloomberg report, FTX filed 23 lawsuits in Delaware bankruptcy court throughout Friday to recoup money directed at Bankman-Fried’s shady investments. Lawyers for the exchange say that the former manager of FTX and a US prisoner started an “influence buying campaign” during the collapse of the crypto market in 2022, hidden by a series of flashy “investments”.
FTX is now moving to return these funds to all clients of SBF’s lavish “investment” which allegedly includes Singapore exchange Crypto.com and FWD.US, an immigration and justice group founded by billionaire Mark Zuckerberg.
The filed complaint also focuses on Bankman-Fried’s relationship with Anthony Scaramucci, former White House Communications Director and Goldman Sachs executive, and founder of the SkyBridge Capital hedge fund. Plaintiffs allege that the former CEO of FTX donated significant time and financial resources to Scaramucci that did not benefit the defunct exchange but were intended to consolidate Bankman-Fried’s position in politics and traditional finance.
In particular, SBF invested $67 million in Scaramucci’s SkyBridge by 2022 as a “bailout”, as the hedge fund company saw its assets under management drop by $7.3 billion since 2015. That same year, FTX ended up buying 30% of SkyBridge for an undisclosed amount months before the crypto exchange announced its engagement. So far, Scaramucci and the other defendants have not filed a response to the latest lawsuits.
FTX Intensifies Effort to Recover Funds Before Scheduled Debt Payments
FTX, under the leadership of John J. Ray III, is maintaining significant asset recovery efforts as creditor payments are expected to begin soon. Recently, Bitcoinist reported that the exchange negotiated an agreement with Bybit to divest $228 million in assets from the UAE-based crypto trading platform.
The former titan of crypto trading is expected to start paying creditors from $ 14.4 to $ 16.3 billion in the last months of 2024 with a possible extension to the beginning of 2025. Of this amount, only $1.6 to $3.2 billion is likely to re-enter the crypto market as most of the lenders’ applications have been obtained through debt financing or will not be accessible due to know-your-customer (KYC) restrictions.
Featured image from Vanity Fair, chart from Tradingview
Source link