FTX filed suit against Skybridge Capital and Anthony Scaramucci for accepting investments from the exchange in 2022 and breaking the contracts.
The FTX bankruptcy estate is going after yet another firm, Skybridge Capital, and its founder, Anthony Scaramucci, to reclaim lost investments before the firm collapsed and filed for bankruptcy in 2022. These investments also date back to 2022, when former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried put millions into Skybridge as part of sponsorship and investment deals.
FTX Gave Skybridge Significant Amounts
A November 8 filing relays that the partnership between FTX and Skybridge and Scaramucci involved numerous investments, with one worth $12 million. That sponsored the Skybridge founder’s SALT conference in January 2022. Furthermore, Bankman-Fried instructed Alameda Research to invest $10 million into the Skybridge Coin Fund.
FTX then invested $45 million in the companies operating some of Skybridge’s investment vehicles in January 2022. However, attorneys for the exchange’s bankruptcy estate called this a nonsensical investment choice, as FTX could have purchased the investment basket directly.
They mentioned, “Employees at the FTX Group noted internally at the time that it made no economic sense for Alameda Research Ventures, which was itself in the business of trading in cryptocurrency assets, to place so much money with a third-party manager that was less experienced than it was in the same business.”
The lawyers have also called Skybridge and Scaramucci for breaching this investment contract as they liquidated the investments without obtaining consent from FTX. That was a key stipulation of the deal and could net FTX the invested amount back. The attorneys further mentioned that the investment would be worth $120 million by today’s valuations—Skybridge sold it for half that at $60 million in 2023.
This is not FTX’s first attempt to regain funds trapped with other entities. Just last week, the exchange filed another complaint with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware—the same court it has filed the Skybridge suit with. Last week’s complaint involved Crypto.com holding $11 million worth of crypto belonging to Alameda Research.
The filing requested the court to demand Crypto.com to unfreeze those funds and release them to FTX. Crypto.com froze the funds due to the irregular activity observed with FTX and Alameda. In October, it did the same regarding a frozen account on the Asian crypto exchange KuCoin. FTX reportedly has $50 million stuck on the exchange.
